NFL is becoming the NBA: Rams trade for Myles Garrett raises concerns about Superteams, parity and tanking
There are 100 days until the start of the 2026 NFL season.
Traditionally, this is the time of year when nearly every fan base can convince itself it has a chance. Well, almost every fan base. Hope had been one of the NFL's strongest selling points.
That doesn't feel true this year.
In fact, the NFL is starting to resemble the NBA. A small handful of teams appear capable of winning the Super Bowl. Another handful look as if they are actively positioning themselves for the future. Everyone else is stuck in the middle.
On Monday, the Cleveland Browns traded pass rusher Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for a package that included a first-round pick, Jared Verse and additional draft capital. The Browns received significant compensation. They also traded away the best defensive player in football.
Garrett is a generational talent. Last season, he recorded 23 sacks, breaking the NFL's single-season sack record and finishing 6.5 sacks ahead of the next-closest player.
The Rams were already the betting favorites to win the Super Bowl. Acquiring Garrett improved their odds to +600. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Bills, Ravens and Seahawks are tied for second at +1000.
On paper, the Rams have assembled something rarely seen in the modern NFL: a superteam.
This is arguably the most talented roster since the 2007 Patriots. Los Angeles reached the NFC Championship Game last season and lost largely because of special teams mistakes that plagued the team all year. The Rams addressed that issue by hiring a new special teams coordinator. Then they spent the offseason adding All-Pro and Pro Bowl talent across the depth chart.
Along with Garrett, Los Angeles traded for cornerback Trent McDuffie and signed fellow Chiefs corner Jaylen Watson. McDuffie is widely regarded as one of the five best cornerbacks in football. Watson would be a No. 1 corner on several NFL teams and finished last season ranked by PFF as the 17th-best cornerback in the NFL.
As currently constructed, the Rams are elite at quarterback, pass rush, cornerback, wide receiver, offensive line, tight end, running back, head coach and general manager.
That's not supposed to happen in a league built around parity. Then again, the NFL had a parity problem before this offseason.
Consider these numbers, via OutKick's Dan Zaksheske:
The last 10 Super Bowls have featured only nine different franchises. Twenty-three NFL teams have not appeared in a Super Bowl during that span.
More franchises have reached multiple Super Bowls (five) over the last decade than have reached one (four).
It has been over 15 years since the AFC Championship Game did not include either the Chiefs or the Patriots. New England and Kansas City have represented the conference in nine of the last 10 Super Bowls.
Four franchises have combined to win 10 of the last 13 championships: the Patriots with three, the Chiefs with three, the Eagles with two and the Seahawks with two.
The Rams now have a chance to make it five franchises that have accounted for 11 of the last 14 titles. They are pursuing their second Super Bowl championship in five seasons and their third appearance since 2019.
Those five teams were, once again, among the most aggressive this offseason. You know what the Rams did. Kansas City added Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker. Philadelphia reinforced its pass rush and receiving depth. New England traded for A.J. Brown.
Meanwhile, Cleveland joins a growing list of teams that appear more focused on the highly anticipated 2027 NFL Draft than the 2026 season. The Dolphins, Cardinals and Jets appear to be operating under a similar philosophy, trading away their top talent.
That leaves much of the league stuck in a cycle of mediocrity. Good enough to compete for a playoff spot. Not nearly good enough to compete for a championship. No franchise embodies that reality more than the Steelers, who continue to prioritize stability over championship upside.
For all the discussion about quarterbacks and coaches, the NFL has become a league defined by owners who empower their general managers to spend resources.
The most influential NFL figures of the past decade are the general managers: Les Snead (Rams), Howie Roseman (Eagles), Brett Veach (Chiefs), John Schneider (Seahawks) and Jason Licht (Buccaneers). Their owners gave them the latitude to re-sign top players, sign big-name free agents and trade draft picks. And that they did.
Such competitive imbalance is undoubtedly a concern for the NFL.
The league became America's last true monoculture partly because of its "any given Sunday" model. Any team could beat any other team, and any franchise could dream big.
That isn't the case anymore. It hasn't been the case in a decade. At some point, fans will begin to notice. The league is already asking fans to invest more time and money in its product through streaming services, international games, additional windows and an increasingly fragmented viewing experience.
There is also no easy fix. The NFL can't simply force some owners to spend more aggressively or others to scale back. As other professional sports leagues have shown, eliminating tanking is just as difficult. The Rams trading for Myles Garrett underscores that.
For years, the NBA had a "wake me up in May" feel to it, knowing the same three or four teams would be there in the end. The NFL is starting to feel the same way, even 100 days out.