Quick Hits | Bengals Tackles All Business When It Comes To Myles Garrett Trade: ‘You Still Have To Go Win On Sundays’
News of the biggest trade in the NFL since they landed Dexter Lawrence II for the 10th pick just days before April’s NFL Draft shot through the Bengals’ first organized team activity practice (OTA) Monday at Paycor Stadium.
As the Bengals embarked on their first seven-on-seven drill of the season, the offensive line had time to piece together the buzz of the deal sending NFL sack record-holder Myles Garrett out of Cleveland and the AFC North for Rams Pro Bowl edge Jared Verse and high picks in each of the next three drafts.
“I’m pretty sure anybody practicing today at the time we were practicing, no matter what it was, I assure you every team got a hold of that news,” said right tackle Amarius Mims after practice. “It’s huge when you get a guy like Myles Garrett, a future Hall of Famer. It’s going to be a buzz. Congrats to those guys.”
It would appear that the two biggest deals in the NFL this offseason have been in favor of the Bengals’ trenches with the addition of the three-time Pro Bowler Lawrence and the departure of Garrett and his 16 career sacks against the Bengals.
But the two Bengals most impacted, Mims, as well as left tackle and captain Orlando Brown Jr., know that Verse and his 12 career sacks in two seasons and 34 games aren’t exactly throw-ins in the deal.
“It doesn’t matter. You still have to go win on Sundays. Congrats to Myles. That’s how I feel. We still have to go win,” Brown said. “(Verse) is a young player who is also a great player. Very talented. I have a lot of respect for his game.”
After the Bengals took Mims with the 18th pick in the 2024 draft, the Rams took Verser next out of Florida State with their first first-round pick since they took quarterback Jared Goff with their first overall No. 1 pick in 2016, and he promptly became the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year. The Bengals have yet to play him, but they will twice in the last five weeks of the season.
“It’s the hardest division anywhere, whether it’s Myles Garrett or Jared Verse,” Mims said. “Both great players. Both have been to the Pro Bowl. Verse has been every year he’s been in the league. We came in together. A great player. You’ve got to block both of them at the end of the day.”
And then, there was the take of vet quarterback Joe Flacco, both a victim and teammate of Garrett, as well as the subject of a Browns blockbuster trade himself. That’s how the Bengals got him last October and why the Paycor faithful chanted, “Thank you Cleveland,” after Flacco engineered a last-snap win over the Steelers nine days later.
He sounds like he may be in the majority when asked about this deal.
“Good for us,” Flacco said.
