NFL Power Rankings after Myles Garrett and A.J. Brown trades send shockwaves

Bullet point summary by AI

• The Los Angeles Rams climbed into a tier of their own after acquiring Myles Garrett, strengthening an already potent roster.
• The Philadelphia Eagles dropped in the rankings following the A.J. Brown trade, raising concerns about their offensive depth.
• Cleveland Browns now sit as the second-worst team but positioned for long-term growth with incoming draft assets.

The NFL always finds ways to surprise you. While everyone was waiting on June 1 for the Philadelphia Eagles to finally trade A.J. Brown to the New England Patriots — and that, obviously, eventually did happen — we had less indication that the Los Angeles Rams would throw a nuclear bomb into the offseason by trading for Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett. But now, here we are with Garrett in LA and needing to re-evaluate our NFL Power Rankings.

Let’s check in again on how all 32 teams stack up against one another, and how the teams involved in these trades moved or didn’t budge after the blockbuster deals.

NFL Power Rankings after Myles Garrett and A.J. Brown trades

Rams enter a new tier of contender after Myles Garrett trade

Look, the Rams can’t go higher than No. 1, which is where they were at the start of OTAs in the power rankings. So they’re staying in the top spot. However, if you were to think about the NFL as tiers instead, then Los Angeles just put itself in a tier of its own by adding Garrett to the fray.

Think about it — this is a roster that already addressed its biggest weakness this offseason with their aggressive moves, including trading for Trent McDuffie, to upgrade the secondary. They have an offense manned by Matthew Stafford and with Sean McVay manning the controls, not to mention a solid O-line that works with McVay and top-end weapons like Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. And now they just added the defensive end who set the single-season sack record last year.

I loathe the idea of super teams, more so the discourse around them that gets created whenever we see something like the Myles Garrett trade (or the ensuing rumors that Aaron Donald might return). This team still needs to be healthy through a 17-game season and live up to their immense potential. But that immense potential is impossible to look away from. The Rams are a cut above the Seahawks and Broncos and created a wider margin between their closest league-wide competition with this trade, at least on paper.

Eagles take a slight hit, Patriots stay put after A.J. Brown trade

I’ll be the first to admit, having the Eagles at No. 6 in the early OTAs power rankings felt generous given some of the very real questions about Jalen Hurts, the changes in the coaching staff and some concerns about defensive attrition as well. But with A.J. Brown now officially out of the building, I have to move them down in good conscience because there’s simply too much unknown with this team.

You can see the blueprint for what the Eagles are trying to do. They’re looking at DeVonta Smith and rookie Makai Lemon to essentially elevate the way Jaxon Smith-Njigba did for Seattle last year after they traded away D.K. Metcalf. Yet, I don’t think Smith or Lemon are capable of that, especially with Hurts at quarterback. He’s struggled to attack the middle of the field, and now will be tasked with doing more of that. When you combine that with the other changes, it’s hard to fully buy in on the Eagles, even if I still think they’re a top-10 team in the sport.

On the other hand, I might’ve been too bullish on the Patriots beforehand, so they’re going to stay put. This isn’t to say that Brown isn’t a needle-mover for New England — he’s an ideal fit, if healthy, for how we saw Drake Maye play last year. He’s a better WR1 than Stefon Diggs, a better deep threat than Kayshon Boutte, and should open up this offense tremendously.

The truth of the matter is that I might’ve already been anticipating that when the initial power rankings hit the press. This trade was one of the worst-kept secrets in the NFL for literal months, and it was hard to look at the Patriots without considering Brown already on the roster to some degree. Regardless, he’s officially here now, and I’m not buying into the idea that New England is going to regress dramatically. They’re a better roster than they were a year ago, and the truth should meet somewhere in the middle as they compete near the top of the AFC.

The Browns drop, but the long run looks better

Make no mistake, there’s no world in which a team trades Myles Garrett away and ends up the ultimate winners in the deal. He’s the best edge rusher in the league, and now he’s playing in Los Angeles instead of Cleveland. And for the 2026 Browns in particular, that’s a tough scene considering that the defense was the only reason that this team wasn’t a laughingstock a year ago. That side of the ball is definitively worse now.

That’s why the Browns now dip below the Arizona Cardinals in the power rankings, moving from the third-worst team in the NFL to the second worst. But here’s the thing — that type of move really doesn’t change all too much. At the end of the day, Cleveland went from being one of the worst teams in the league to still being one of the worst teams in the league, just slightly more so.

Moving Garrett to the Rams was never about the 2026 season, though. They did a tremendous job of continuing to build and set up this roster for a better future. Jared Verse is a Top 15-ish edge rusher in the NFL just entering his third NFL season and while being five years younger than Garrett. There’s a first-round pick in a deep 2027 draft coming the Browns’ way, and two more Top 100 picks in the next few years as well.

For a franchise that knocked this year’s draft out of the park and is clearly eyeing the future beyond the upcoming season, the Browns made the right move to maximize value. Garrett, even at 30 years old, arguably may have never been more valuable in a trade. They got the most they could, and while we won’t see those benefits reaped in the 2026 campaign, we will see them in the coming years.

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