'Dream Team' Rams Ripped by Rival Coach After Cardinals Loss & Garrett Trade, 'Doesn't Work in' NFL

One opposing NFL coach questioned whether the Los Angeles Rams were perhaps a little too aggressive this offseason in their pursuit of Super Bowl glory.

In particular, the coach believes trading two-time Pro Bowler Jared Verse for reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett was a mistake.

"Verse had juice and carried the flag for that team," they told The Athletic's Mike Sando . "Be careful with the dream teams. That doesn't work in this league."

Los Angeles is sitting at 2-4 on the season with Sunday's 18-16 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

Having watched the team in person, one member of the Cardinals coaching staff downplayed how bad things are for the Rams.

"Dude, they'll be fine. They have Matthew Stafford," the coach said to The MMQB's Albert Breer .

An anonymous coach echoed the same thing to Sando, citing the losses to the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills by seven combined points.

"They played Denver to the wire, Buffalo to the wire — good teams," the coach said. "They are going to the wire in just about every game. You win some, you lose some in the NFL. I think they're gonna be fine."

The second-guessing over the Garrett trade is a little unfair because nobody could predict he'd be injured in Week 1. He had missed two combined games between 2021-25.

Rams general manager Les Snead did, however, know what acquiring the Hall of Fame-bound edge-rusher would do to the team's preseason expectations — and how much added pressure that would bring.

No matter how good he looked in workouts, Aaron Donald was always going to have a lot of rust after being retired for two full seasons as well. That, along with Garrett's injury, can help to explain why L.A. has just eight sacks as a team.

A level of regression with Stafford was bound to happen, too, when his touchdown (46) and interception (eight) rates were some of the best of his career.

With the benefit of hindsight, this wasn't an unbeatable "dream team."

But just as people were premature to write the Rams' name in as the NFC's representative for Super Bowl LXI before the season kicked off, the overreactions to their record might be premature.