​The Los Angeles Rams made a series of aggressive offseason trades to overhaul their defense, sending multiple first-round picks and rising young edge rusher Jared Verse to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for star pass rusher Myles Garrett, while also acquiring cornerback Trent McDuffie from Kansas City and signing free-agent corner Jaylen Watson.The moves were clearly a direct response to how the Rams’ defense unraveled in the playoffs, and ESPN’s Ben Solak explains that the Garrett-for-Verse swap directly targets a finishing problem and opens up new avenues for defensive coordinator Chris Shula in 2026 and beyond.A wonderful bull rusher, Verse often demolished the pocket and created pressure but was unable to finish his rushes under control. He has a career pressure-to-sack ratio of 8.4%, which is fourth worst among all edges over the past two seasons. Garrett’s recent pressure-to-sack ratio was obviously ballooned by his record-setting season, but over his career, he has a 19.3% conversion rate — more than double that of Verse.Because Verse was such a wrecking ball, Shula would wisely use him as the crasher on stunts, twists and other defensive line games. With a runway into a tackle, Verse could break pocket integrity and flush out the quarterback, where a waiting looper or blitzer could clean him up. It was Shula’s way of converting Verse’s pressures into team sacks, as Verse couldn’t easily convert them into individual sacks. Cody Alexander of Match Quarters charted stunt rate last year and had the Rams running more defensive line games than any other team in the league by a pretty large margin.With Garrett, Solak suggests Shula will lean into more straightforward four-man rush opportunities, often overloading the line away from Garrett to isolate him in one-on-one matchups. Still, Shula is expected to retain some stunt packages to maximize interior rushers like Byron Young and Kobie Turner, using Garrett’s presence to draw extra blocking attention and open lanes elsewhere on the line.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe secondary overhaul complements that shift. Adding McDuffie and Watson gives the Rams the cornerback talent to play more man coverage, which was the exact weakness Carolina exploited in the playoffs, while a more disruptive pass rush should reduce how long that coverage needs to hold up.Exactly how Shula blends those pieces remains an open question that Solak expects to evolve throughout the season, with Week 1 schemes likely looking different from those in Week 18 as Shula and Garrett continue to build chemistry. But the broader expectation is straightforward: a proven defensive mind paired with one of the league’s premier pass rushers should mean a strong season both for Garrett individually and for the Rams’ defense as a whole.This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: How ESPN thinks Chris Shula will deploy Myles Garrett in Rams’ defense