Jets received unexpected gift in Rams' Myles Garrett trade

The Jets won't be seeing Myles in 2026.

Charlie Baduini

Los Angeles Rams defensive end Myles Garrett / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The NFL world was set ablaze on Monday afternoon when it was reported that the Los Angeles Rams would be trading for reigning Defensive Player of the Year and former Cleveland Browns superstar Myles Garrett.

It was quite the haul for Cleveland, as you'd expect in a deal for arguably the best defensive player in the NFL, and a win for every team on the Browns' schedule in 2026.

The New York Jets are set to face Cleveland on October 11, in Week 5 of the regular season at MetLife Stadium. It's much less of a taller task without Garrett in the fray.

New York is going to need that win against the Browns in Week 5, considering just how difficult the schedule is to start the 2026 season.

Jets dodge a major bullet without having to face Myles Garrett in 2026

It's absolutely a blessing for the Jets not to have to see Garrett next season, especially after a brutal three-game stretch where they're set to face the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, and Chicago Bears.

Both the Bears and Packers were playoff teams last season, while the Lions were just one win short of a postseason birth. All three will be tall tasks for a young Jets team, making the Week 1 and Week 5 matchups against the Tennessee Titans and Browns all the more important.

To be fair, though, Garrett's most recent outing against the Jets was not his best. During his 23-sack, Defensive Player of the Year 2025 campaign, he faced New York and second-year left tackle Olu Fashanu at MetLife in Week 10.

The former No. 1 overall pick had a relatively quiet outing for his standards, recording only one sack, three tackles, and two tackles for loss.

Regardless, the Browns are a worse team without Garrett screaming off the edge, and the Jets are fortunate for it.

Starting 2-3 should be the bare minimum for New York, especially with the equally young Titans and Browns on the schedule.

Otherwise, 0-5 or 1-4 will be a tough hole for Aaron Glenn to climb out of, especially with his back against the wall entering Year 2 of his tenure as head coach.

Charlie Baduini

Charlie Baduini covers the New York Jets as a site expert for The Jet Press and FanSided. He is a sports journalist based in Northern New Jersey with a wide variety of sports reporting experience in print and broadcast journalism. Baduini’s byline can also be seen on Heavy and The Sporting News, where he covers several teams across the NFL and NBA. His work has been featured in Heavy, Athlon Sports, The Sporting News, Yahoo Sports, MSN, and Yardbarker. He also serves as a seasonal intern for ESPN, working as a production assistant for the Heisman Trophy Ceremony every year since 2022. Baduini has been a Jets fan for as long as he can remember, with his family's fandom dating back to the 1960s when his grandfather, Louis, became a season ticket holder. His family has since held on to the tickets to this day. He is an avid fan of the New York Knicks and New York Mets.