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Jared Verse’s family is from Dayton, Ohio, and his older sister still lives there and will be relatively close, so the trade that sent Verse to the Cleveland Browns has some upside. But let’s make no mistake, moving from the Los Angeles Rams to the Browns was not good news for Verse.
“I was upset for quite a while,” Verse revealed when meeting with local reporters at the Browns facility on Wednesday.
Understandable.
Jared Verse of the Los Angeles Rams reacts during the NFC Championship Game against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington on January 25, 2026.
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Indeed, going from the Super Bowl contender Rams to the Browns, a team contending to finish last in the AFC North, won’t immediately be great. It’s the proverbial journey from the penthouse to the outhouse.
“Yeah, it took me by surprise,” Verse continued. “I loved Los Angeles, I loved the coaches, the organization, my teammates, everyone who was a part of it, the staff, the fans. You know, I loved the whole atmosphere of Los Angeles, of Los Angeles, of the Rams, and it was overwhelming.”
He is a player who shows no weakness on the pitch being vulnerable against strangers.
And there really should be no judgment here because we understand. We’ve seen it before.
Jared Goff helped the Rams win a Super Bowl in February 2019, so he thought he was building a life with this team. But two years later, he was traded to the Detroit Lions for the older and more accomplished Matthew Stafford.
Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions celebrates a touchdown during an NFL game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland on September 22, 2025. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)
It’s a big blow to the ego.
And like the Goff-Stafford deal, we’re talking about moving from Gucci leather belts to the Rust Belt. Because Cleveland is a nice city and all, but the weather doesn’t compare to Los Angeles. And the atmosphere for a 25 year old with a lot of money is obviously not the same either.
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Then there are the prospects for the upcoming season. Verse was mentally prepared to return with a good team until this trade. The Rams were 12-5 last season and reached the NFC Championship Game. The Browns were 5-12 and requested a coaching change.
But one of the duties, one supposes, of being a professional athlete is to understand that your team is your workplace. It’s your business, not your family.
Many teams tell players they are part of a family, but when was the last time a family traded a son or brother?
The verse understands this now.
“When you’re an athlete, you understand the nature of the business,” he said. “Everyone does what they think is best for their business, and that’s the situation I’m in. I’m happy to be a part of the Browns. I’m happy that they believed in me and were able to make that trade and bring me here, be with my teammates, be with everyone here.
“And I really believe in everyone in the locker room. But it was overwhelming at first. But then you have two choices: You can either work or quit, and I’ve never been a quitter.”
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Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett warms up before the Week 10 NFL game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on November 9, 2025. (IMAGINE)
An intriguing aspect of the Browns trading Myles Garrett for Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick is that they held out until the Rams added Verse to the deal. Up until that point, the deal was just a proposed compensation trade for Garrett that Cleveland didn’t necessarily want to make.
“I always said to myself that if we were ever in a position to trade Myles, three things would have to be true,” Browns executive vice president and general manager Andrew Berry said. “First, it should have short-term and long-term benefits. Second, as part of the exchange, a young cost control star in a prime position should be included. The third thing is that there should be premium project capital.
“And there’s a very small set of deals that really satisfy those constraints. So when we got to the point in our negotiations with the Rams, when all of those things were satisfied, it really made us take a step back and really think about the decision.
“Jared Verse, he’s obviously a big part of this comeback for us.”
This is good for Verse. He’s on a team that wants him and is more closely aligned with his career arc. He’s on his rookie contract through the 2027 season. And he’s part of a team building for a brighter future in maybe two or three years.
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The Rams are in win-now mode. They’re filling out their roster with expensive veterans, and in two or three years they could be in rebuilding mode.
So maybe the move that Verse initially didn’t like could work in his best interest.
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