There are trades that move the needle, and then there are blockbusters that become tectonic shifts in the Super Bowl race for the season ahead.

Last week’s Myles Garrett and A.J. Brown deals fall squarely into the latter category, as two heavyweights cemented their status as genuine favorites to play for the Lombardi next February, bolstering their Super Bowl chances by acquiring two of the premier players at their position.

The Los Angeles Rams were exposed late in the NFC Championship Game against the Seattle Seahawks, who then bludgeoned the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, which clearly sent general managers Les Snead and Eliot Wolf on quests for force-multiplying starpower at their most critical positions of need.

Inside this week’s column, we explore the impact of the Rams’ stunning move that pried future Hall of Famer Myles Garrett from the perpetually rebuilding Cleveland Browns, and the Patriots’ coup, landing A.J. Brown in the most anticipated move of the summer, from the reloading Philadelphia Eagles, and much more …

When exactly did Les Snead pull out that “In My F*** Them Picks Era” T-shirt?

Was it stuffed down in his travel bag, just in case, yanked out on the bus ride from Lumen Field to SEA-TAC Airport after Sam Darnold lit up the Rams’ secondary for 346 yards and three touchdowns in the NFC Championship Game?

Or, did Snead stew over a defense allowing 97 yards and two third-quarter touchdowns in the conference championship loss, until he got back in the office on Monday before digging it out of his bottom desk drawer?

Either way, between trading a first-round pick in 2026 for Trent McDuffie, and then shipping rising star and disruptive edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, 2028 second-round pick, and a third-round pick in 2029 isn’t just “F*** Them Picks” personified, but the kind of move that sets the Rams up to legitimately compete for championships over each of the next three seasons.

The Rams very well may have been positioned to win the NFC this season with Verse, who at age 25 has produced 12 sacks through his first two seasons and is widely viewed as a rising star across the league.

Verse is well on his way to establishing himself as a pure power rusher, who has risen to the moment in his biggest games, posting three sacks and six tackles for loss in the five playoff games he’s appeared in so far, but may need to wait a bit to add to those postseason numbers, now.

Garrett, though, is a chess piece.

The two-time and Defending Defensive Player of the Year, who produced a record 23 sacks last season, added 84 total quarterback pressures, and is the kind of presence that defensive coordinator Chris Shula can move around, pinpointing weaknesses in opposing offensive lines and exploiting them with the game’s most dominant defensive presence.

Whether it’s as a 3-technique, a 5-technique, or dropping him alongside space-eating nose tackle Kobie Turner to jam centers and quarterbacks up the middle, Garrett’s the rare caliber of player that quarterbacks and coordinators must account for on every single snap.

Offensive coordinators aren't just having to adjust their protections this week; they are rewriting their entire baseline rules for handling the Rams' front.

The anxiety across the league's offensive meeting rooms is already palpable.

“It's brutal,” a rival offensive coach tells Between The Hashmarks, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Los Angeles won that trade. It isn't even close."

The last time Snead went this all-in, the Rams toppled Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl, after trading Jared Goff, and first-round picks in 2022 and 2023, as well as a 2021 third-round pick to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford.

That worked out pretty well.

This is clearly a core value of Snead’s and an institutional philosophy of the Rams, which hasn’t just allowed Los Angeles to acquire a franchise quarterback and now a franchise cornerstone pass rusher, but since 2016 the only times the Rams used a first-round pick were to select Verse in 2024, and Ty Simpson this spring.

Drafting Simpson at No. 13 now looks like the strategic keystone of the entire enterprise.

By securing a high-upside passer on a cost-controlled, first-round rookie contract with a fifth-year option, Snead insulated the franchise against the post-Stafford cliff.

More importantly, it freed him up psychologically to view that 2027 first-round pick not as a lifeline for a future quarterback search, but as disposable currency to win right now with Garrett.

It’s a cyclical masterclass: use a rare first-round pick on a cheap quarterback, then use the savings and future picks to buy the league's most dominant defensive force.

That kind of high-stakes, macro-level roster maneuvering leaves rival front offices completely transfixed—and more than a little envious.

"I don't know how Les does it," a rival personnel executive told Between The Hashmarks, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about another team. "But, either the coaching staff or he is the luckiest man on Earth."

Luck comes along when a plan is executed to perfection, which the Rams keep returning to the same playbook to the point that it has become their identity.

Investing first-round picks in proven veterans with difference-making star power doesn’t just build the foundation of a roster but allows Snead the flexibility of not having to pay a first-round salary to allocate cap space that can then be paid to those impact players the Rams acquired.

Snead’s “In My F*** Them Picks Era” t-shirt clearly still fits, but he and the Rams clearly have sights set on another one to add to his collection come February 14, and maybe some confetti, too, inside SoFi Stadium.

In Foxboro, the New England Patriots very clearly viewed A.J. Brown as the solution to two problems, while 293 miles south down the I-95 corridor, the Philadelphia Eagles are hoping that removing the explosive wide receiver’s presence improves the culture and unlocks an offense that at times locked into his outsized presence last season.

General manager Eliot Wolf and head coach Mike Vrabel aren’t just looking to prop open a window in the AFC, but to build a prolific offense tailored to their rising quarterback’s strengths to ensure the Patriots are in the mix for the rest of Drake Maye’s rookie contract and beyond.