This was supposed to be the fun part. Myles Garrett gets shipped from a rebuilding Browns team to a Sean McVay-run Rams squad that's actually trying to win now, and instead of turning heads in camp, he's been standing on the sideline in sweats for 3 straight days.
More about defensive end Myles Garrett dealing with “a little soreness in his lower half,” HC Sean McVay said Sunday, keeping the pass rusher out of practice for the third consecutive day, via @sarahbarshop: https://t.co/aeRfFlDAyM
Adam Schefter passed along the update via Sarah Barshop: Garrett is dealing with "a little soreness in his lower half," per McVay, and it's kept the pass rusher out of practice since the block started. Not a torn anything, not a designation with a percentage attached to it. Just soreness — the kind of word that means everything and nothing until a guy actually jogs back out there.
McVay isn't treating it like news, either. He's called it a matter of "erring on the side of being smart" and said there's "no reason for concern," according to ESPN. Garrett will sit out Monday too, the last day of this practice block, before the Rams get an off day Tuesday and reassess. McVay's expectation, per that same report: Garrett should be good to go for the next block.
Worth remembering why anyone's watching this closely at all. Garrett was the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year last season, racking up 23 sacks for Cleveland, and he spent 9 years as the engine of that Browns defense before requesting a trade off a 3-14 team. The Browns landed him a record extension worth $40 million a year to try to keep him — then dealt him to the Rams in June anyway, sending back Jared Verse and 3 draft picks in the swap.
So there's real intrigue in exactly how the Rams manage him this summer. This isn't a guy fighting for a roster spot — it's the best defender in football getting the personal-day treatment from a coach who has zero interest in wearing him down before the games count, especially with a trip to Australia already on the Rams' 2026 schedule. Load management for a pass rusher his caliber isn't panic, it's just modern roster math.
None of it moves the needle for Week 1, but it's the kind of thing fantasy managers and bettors will keep half an eye on until Garrett's actually back on the field in pads. Camp soreness stories almost always resolve themselves — until, occasionally, they don't.