What also factored into his decision was seeing from afar the way a group of talented Rams players responded to and played for McVay.
"They love playing the game, and they love playing the game for this guy," Garrett said, turning his left hand and pointing his thumb at McVay. "And that means a lot, having a player's coach lead you onto that field and wanting to give the extra effort and go the extra mile for him and for each other. That's kind of what you feel going onto that field – these guys are going to war, not just as individuals, but as a team, and that's how you end up playing those games later into the year."
In Cleveland, Garrett only got to play in those of those games – twice following the 2020 regular season, once following the 2023 regular season. And while he has plenty of years of high-level performance left in him, he also understands he has a finite amount of time in his career to achieve those goals.
He's highly motivated for that individual success to translate to the Rams reaching their ultimate goal.
"Since the very beginning, it's always been about winning," Garrett said. "It just breaks down to the time I have left in this league. What does it look like for me to be a winner now? And to an opportunity to do that here, that was an opportunity that was just too difficult to pass up."