The Myles Garrett trade would have completely broken the Lions and looks to potentially break the Rams
The Detroit Lions version of a Myles Garrett-style blockbuster trade would completely break their draft-and-retain identity, while the Rams’ aggressive approach could be the one that ends up paying the bigger long-term price.
Earlier Tuesday morning, we wrote a story about how the Lions’ method of team building works a lot more than the Rams’ method does. It all stems from the big Myles Garrett trade the Rams pulled off on Monday.
Look, I get it. Lions fans see these mega trades or free agent signings, and they get way more attention than a team just re-signing one of their own players. It’s a drug with a completely different high, and honestly, it’s a better one. But it doesn’t make it right every time.
The Lions’ version of the Myles Garrett trade kills their entire franchise
There are two ways of building a team: the draft-and-retain way and the buying-the-stars way. It’s incredibly hard to start with one of those methods and violently shift into the other one. This deal makes sense for the Rams because they’ve been doing this for years.
For the Lions, it’s TNT wrapped in C4. It takes all of their ideals, all of their culture, and every single thing this team is about and throws it in the trash on the chance that they might win a Super Bowl that season. And maybe they do, but in a year or so, they’re blowing it all up.
The Rams gave the Browns Pro Bowl edge Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick.
That is a lot. For the Lions, a draft-and-retain team to the core, that’s essentially giving up Aidan Hutchinson and three players they’d have a better-than-good chance of being key starters or star players.
That’s moving a 26-year-old homegrown franchise talent for a soon-to-be 31-year-old All-Pro, who is one of the best players at his position of all time, but isn’t getting any younger, and Father Time loses to nobody. There is just so much risk attached to it.
It’s not just the future draft picks; a move like this messes things up for the Lions. It’s the ones from the past, too.
The Rams are about to let some of their best players hang out there in the wind after this big trade. These guys are slated to be free agents after the 2026 season. Maybe there’s a chance they can get each of them to come right back, but I’m sure the Ravens probably felt Tyler Linderbaum would come right back, too. He did not.
There are teams that are going to be able to offer these guys things the Rams might not be able to, and it’s because they’ve tied a ton of money into a handful of players and may not have the assets to really make all of this work.
At the end of the day, maybe this works for the Rams, and they get that Super Bowl in 2026. But if they don’t, this will be just another giant trade that ultimately led to nothing while a team that drafted all its great players wins yet another championship.
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