Myles Garrett Injury 2026: Rams DPOY Out Until Week 6

Myles Garrett is having knee surgery and will spend at least the next month on injured reserve, ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported Sunday, Sept. 13. The reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year is out for a minimum of four games and is eligible to return for the Los Angeles Rams' Week 6 game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Myles Garrett's knee injury: what happened

Garrett will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery after playing through swelling that kept him out of most of training camp. He was on the field for the Rams' Week 1 loss to San Francisco but told reporters beforehand that his knee "was not 100% healthy," and afterward called his performance "the worst version of myself that I've put out there." He finished that game without a tackle, the first time that has happened to him since Week 11 of the 2024 season and only the fourth time in his career.

"I've got to find a way to recover and get back to the player I know I can be and I've shown that I've been before," Garrett said.

Why the injury is such a big deal: a record-breaking 2025

Garrett arrives at this injury off the best season of his career. In 2025 with Cleveland he broke the NFL's single-season sack record with 23, passing the 22.5-sack mark that Michael Strahan set in 2001 and T.J. Watt matched in 2021. He also led the league in tackles for loss with a career-high 33, added 60 tackles, 39 quarterback hits and three forced fumbles, and turned in a five-sack game against the Patriots in Week 8. That season earned him a unanimous Defensive Player of the Year award, all 50 first-place votes, his second DPOY after also winning in 2023 and finishing as a finalist three straight years before that.

That record-breaking track record is the entire reason the Rams paid what they paid to acquire him, and it is why a four-game absence to open his first season in Los Angeles is a real blow rather than a footnote.

The trade that brought him to Los Angeles

The Rams acquired Garrett from the Cleveland Browns in a 2026 offseason blockbuster, sending pass rusher Jared Verse and three draft picks, including a 2027 first-rounder, back to Cleveland. StatSniper covered the deal in full at the time in our Myles Garrett trade breakdown, and the injury adds an immediate wrinkle: Los Angeles gave up significant draft capital for a pass rusher who will miss at least a quarter of his first season with the team.

Betting and DFS impact

Garrett entered the season as the co-favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, and StatSniper's NFL DPOY odds board had him at +450 as recently as mid-August. A four-game absence, in a market where voters weight full-season sack and pressure totals heavily, is the kind of gap that historically pushes a front-runner off the top line. Our earlier DPOY breakdown had Micah Parsons as the other name at the top of that board, and Parsons is now the more direct beneficiary of any market movement.

For the Rams' pass rush props and team sack totals, Garrett's absence pushes snaps toward the rest of Los Angeles' defensive line rotation, and any book offering an updated team sack total for the Rams should move down until he returns. The Rams' first home game without him is the Monday night matchup against the Giants in Week 2, where Los Angeles is favored by a touchdown. StatSniper's NFL Week 2 schedule and odds has the full line for that game and the rest of the week's board. See our AI sports picks hub for the model's full slate once each week's injury reports are final.

What to watch next

Garrett is eligible to return for the Rams' Week 6 game against Arizona on the standard four-game injured reserve minimum, though teams routinely hold players out longer when a return date lands on a bye week or a difficult matchup. The next real checkpoint is the Rams' final injury report before Week 6, and any practice-window designation in the two weeks before that will be the first hard signal on whether he plays that week or sits longer.

Los Angeles plays four games before that checkpoint, and each one is effectively a data point on how the defense performs without its highest-paid pass rusher. A defense that holds up in Garrett's absence changes the calculus on how quickly the Rams need to rush him back; a defense that struggles raises the stakes on every practice report between now and the Cardinals game.

FAQ

What injury does Myles Garrett have? A knee injury that requires arthroscopic surgery. He played through swelling in the knee for most of training camp and into the Rams' Week 1 loss to San Francisco before the decision to operate.

How long will Myles Garrett be out? At least four games. He is eligible to return for the Rams' Week 6 game against the Arizona Cardinals, though that is a minimum, not a confirmed return date.

Who is favored for NFL Defensive Player of the Year now that Garrett is hurt? Micah Parsons was already priced alongside Garrett at the top of the market before the injury. StatSniper's DPOY odds coverage has the full board and how it has moved.

How did Myles Garrett end up with the Rams? Los Angeles traded pass rusher Jared Verse and three draft picks, including a 2027 first-round selection, to Cleveland in a 2026 offseason blockbuster. Full details are in StatSniper's trade breakdown.

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