Browns’ Myles Garrett trade makes more sense with every new story about his replacement — Jimmy Watkins

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns coach Todd Monken watched his star edge rusher school his rookie left tackle after Tuesday’s practice, and Monken left the classroom counting his blessings. By “classroom,” we mean patch of practice grass. And by “school,” we mean push, punch and offer pointers. New Browns sack king Jared Verse only spent five reps working with first-round pick Spencer Fano one-on-one last week, just like he’s only spent two months in Cleveland. But Monken told reporters last week that he can already see the difference Verse is making. “I walked up to Jared and said, ‘man, we’re so lucky you’re a Brown,”' Monken said last week. “I mean holy s---, how cool is this?’ Because he’s not only a great leader, but he also works his rear end off every day, and after practice he’s trying to get Spencer better.”Spoken like a coach building a culture. With just five camp players aged 30 or older, Monken needs help from ‘veterans’ like Verse (age 25) to help stimulate his preferred team spirit. And in this regard — perhaps only this regard — Verse fits the Browns’ vision better than their old, oft-grumpy superstar.In many ways, Verse will never be Myles Garrett, whom the Browns traded in June. Verse can’t match Garrett’s get-off or, most likely, break his records. He will never bend around the edge like 95, either, because nobody does. But how many players leave a Verse-sized leadership imprint on their new team within two months? “It’s unique, it’s rare. It’s a freaking unicorn, that’s what it is,” Monken said last week. “It’s rare that a player comes in like that.”“It’s Brock Bowers rare, like we had at Georgia. You’re in the category of, wow, the way Brock would work and the way this guy leads and goes about it, it’s a rare category,” Monken continued. “You just show up, and (he) goes about his business like you’ve been there four or five years already, and that’s a real credit to both (Bowers and Verse).”Bowers later landed with the Raiders, where he posted the best rookie season in tight end history. And 10 days into training camp, Verse might be the fastest rising voice in Berea. You can hear it in practice, where he’s constantly chirping a blocker he just beat. And you could see the energy he fosters on Saturday, when Verse and Fano grew tired of blocking and talking. Late into the longest (and maybe the hottest) of six straight practices, Verse ripped Fano’s helmet off during team drills and started a fight. The play finished with Fano flipping Verse onto the ground. The day finished as one of Fano’s best practices. Coincidence? I’ll let defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire, who commended Verse’s practice persona earlier Saturday afternoon, be the judge. “It’s cool to see a guy that just walks into a room and acts like he’s already been there for years, and you can see it in the play when he’s out there,” Cesaire said. “You know he’s gonna talk his junk, and then he gets everybody riled up. He gets the defense riled up. He’s talking junk to the offense, and it gets them going. So that leadership profile that we all know this team needs defensively is really showing out right now.”How the Browns’ new wide receivers coach feels about the overhauled group after 10 days of training campHow the Texans’ offseason changes will impact the Browns in Week 10The moment Browns rookie Spencer Fano stopped being quiet and started being dangerousLeadership profiles count for zero sacks or Defensive Player of the Year awards. And no anecdote can convince angry fans to support the Garrett trade (or the circumstances surrounding it).But I do think Verse’s voice can help them grasp it.The Browns traded Garrett in June for a bevy of reasons. They liked the Rams’ trade package (principally because Verse was in it). Garrett’s win-now edict didn’t fit a young roster. And the longer Cleveland waited to move him, the lower his return price would fall. But I also wonder if Cleveland was tired of addressing Garrett’s speeding tickets and fielding questions about his annual OTA (organized team activity) absences. Maybe they, too, wondered why their best player, who liked to critique their losing culture, kept skipping those culture-building moments.Perhaps they concluded, as they pivoted toward the future, that it did not serve their young core to hear their most talented teammate call out the franchise during his postgame press conferences (or, on occasion, his Super Bowl week interviews).To be clear: Garrett was never wrong in his assessments. The Browns won 34 games combined (5.6 per year) during his age 26-30 seasons. They earned his ire for wasting his prime. And despite whispers about Garrett’s tardy tendencies in meetings, I never thought he was the problem. He set strong examples on the field and in the weight room (the guy’s muscles had muscles). He shared pass rush notes with teammates like Alex Wright, who took the news hard when Garrett was traded. And as much as he lamented Cleveland’s losing tradition, he always kept playing through the bad days.The man broke an NFL sack record during a hapless, five-win season, for heaven’s sake. He only missed two games during his final five seasons with the Browns.But he was tired of losing, tired of watching bad quarterback play, tired of waiting for the Browns to recover from the Deshaun Watson trade. Reality check: They still are. The Athletic’s annual league survey says Cleveland’s quarterback competition is between the 31st- and 35th-best passers (out of 35) in football (Watson and Shedeur Sanders, respectively). Most Browns’ blue-chip prospects — yes, even second-round receiver Denzel “Mosston” Boston — are still just theoretical stars. And Cleveland’s revamped offensive line still has questions to answer.Luckily, they can ask Verse if they get stumped. The new star Browns defender may be younger and less proven than his predecessor, but he’s also unburdened by Cleveland’s baggage. Where Garrett saw a(nother) rebuilding roster, Verse sees potential. And he’s already working to help his teammates fulfill it. “I just wanna elevate everyone around me,” Verse said earlier in camp. “Obviously, I want to be the best player I can be – get all the sacks, get Defensive Player of the Year, go to the Super Bowl, win the Super Bowl. Obviously, I want to win all that. “The biggest thing I care about is just, what’s happening today. And that’s just making my teammates better in any aspect that I possibly can.”