CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Myles Garrett trade request reached a stunning (albeit, somehow still fairly anticlimactic) conclusion on Sunday.
After weeks of insistence by Garrett that he wanted out of the Browns and wished to hunt down a Super Bowl like he’s spent eight years of his career hunting opposing quarterbacks, there was a change of heart.
The Browns on Sunday agreed to terms with their 29-year-old star on an four-year, $160 million extension through 2030 worth $40 million a year, including $123.5 million in guarantees. It makes him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL.
So yes, after weeks of drama and heels digging in on both sides, and a report by cleveland.com that Garrett was “not open to” a contract extension, it all ends with a historic payday.
But where GM Andrew Berry and the Browns deserve the most credit in this is the way they minimized the drama along the way, and can now all move on with the start of the new league year this week.
This saga began on Dec. 20 when Garrett revealed he might want out of Cleveland if the Browns couldn’t show him a blueprint for contending in 2025.
But things seemed to be heading in a positive direction. In Berry’s season wrap-up presser he was optimistic about Garrett’s future, and around the same time on an episode of “Hard Knocks: In season with the AFC North,” Garrett said, “we’re closer than some think we are.”
Again, it seemed much ado about nothing when Berry said he wouldn’t trade Garrett (even if someone offered him two first-round picks) and was open to extending him.
It all came to a head though just ahead of the Super Bowl, when Garrett dropped his trade request bombshell publicly in a statement sent to cleveland.com and several other news outlets, and then made the rounds on radio row re-affirming his wishes.
But with each new development, the Browns held firm, unwavering in their stance.
At the NFL Combine less than two weeks ago, Berry made it clear he wasn’t engaging in trade talks and took it a step further, really refusing to engage in the premise of those questions.
“I wouldn’t really touch on any conversations that I have with other teams, just respectfully,” Berry said. “I don’t think that’s appropriate just for current and future business, but it’s irrelevant to this situation because we’re not interested in trading Myles.”
Head coach Kevin Stefanski in his own Combine availability the next day said he understood that the business side of football could rear its head at times like this, but said he expected nothing less than for Garrett to remain in Cleveland.
“He’s part of the present, he’s part of the future,” he said in part.
It seemed to be getting uglier two days later, on Feb. 27, when a source told cleveland.com that Garrett was “not open to” a contract extension.
But again, the Browns refused to budge. That notably included when Garrett recently requested a meeting with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. He was denied, and Haslam instead pointed him back to Berry, remaining firm that those matters lie in the hands of the GM.
In past Browns regimes, when there had been infighting and discord between some combination of ownership, the front office and coaching staff, it would have been easy to envision this having a much more dramatic and drawn out conclusion.
But with this regime, by not budging on their initial Garrett stance, circling the wagons, and relaying the same message, the Browns got the best-possible conclusion.
Right now, it still may be fairly easy for Cleveland fans to turn Berry into a scapegoat. People are still (rightfully) angry over the Browns 3-14 finish in 2024; and the Deshaun Watson trade, his poor play, and the cap issues his contract has created. And even now, there may be fans annoyed in the short term that the Browns didn’t just honor Garrett’s trade request and stockpile some draft picks for him.
But it’s worth noting, even if the Browns had a change of heart and would have been opening to trading him, financially the limitations would have been tough on their return.
Prior to this deal, per Over the Cap, Garrett counted for $19.722 million on the cap and a trade would have left the team with at least $36.2 million in dead money, and a loss of $16.5 million in cap room.
A post June 1 trade would have been more feasible (they would only have had $14.758 million in dead cap money in 2025, $10.25 million in 2026, $7.032 in 2027 and $3.798 million in 2028), but by that point, their likely draft compensation for him would have been a year and two years out — not exactly ideal for an edge rusher of his caliber.
But by locking Garrett up now with an extension, the front office has a clearer path as free agency negotiating begins tomorrow and the new league year begins on Wednesday. His return could very likely help lure in potential free agents.
Garrett’s return also means other key veterans like Denzel Ward, David Njoku and Greg Newsome II can relax heading into the season.
Those returners, young edge rushers like Alex Wright and Isaiah McGuire, and whatever rookies the Browns draft next month, now won’t have to spend a large portion of the offseason answering questions about Garrett. The potential distraction has largely been stopped in its tracks.
The Browns threw a lot of money Garrett’s way to help rectify this problem, but they also remained united to help get a deal done. The first doesn’t come without the second.
And with the deal, now everyone can move on, with plenty of time to spare before September.
In the end, cooler heads (and a heck of a lot of money) prevailed, and for that, give Cleveland credit.
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