Take a breath Browns fans. I’m of the opinion the Browns won’t be trade Myles Garrett based on his current contract, his previous statements about the team’s future and the statement made by Browns GM Andrew Berry. Here are my reasons.

Reason number one, his contract. NFL fans love their favorite teams and the players who play for those teams, but they tend to forget the largest factor, the NFL is a business. The following salary numbers are provided by Over The Cap, https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space. Garrett is currently signed for two more years due to his last extension. His salary in 2025 is $19.8 million and in 2026 is $25 million. If he was traded, the trade would have to happen prior to March 15 when he is due a $5 million bonus. The salary cap ramifications would be $36 million in dead cap and a salary cap loss of $16.5 million. As pointed out by http://@Jason-OTC at Over The Cap, “Just to run a quick scenario but prior to adjustments the Browns would need to restructure Watson and Ward to the fullest and cut Conklin to trade Garrett. Doing all of that would leave them with likely between $2M and 7M in cap space depending on where the cap winds up” Jason also concludes the Browns would end up in the same shape as the New Orleans Saints, who are in cap trouble every year. This is a no brainer, no team in the league is going to put themselves in cap hell on purpose.

Reason number two, Myles Garrett has no leverage. He’s under contract with the Browns for two more years and doesn’t have a no trade clause. If a trade does happen, the Browns control where he goes, and they won’t trade him to another AFC team. the Browns could agree to trade him to one of the worst teams in the NFC. If this happens his current contract has to be restructured. Garrett could decline to do that, but that just hurts his tradability and his marketability. Garrett could also hold out, but that hurts Garrett more than the Browns, because other teams will see him as a malcontent. In the end, the Browns could place the franchise tag on Garrett, which would pay in around $72 million in 2025. Bottom line, if he’s traded to a bad team, he wastes another two to three years not playing for a ring.

Reason number three, contract extension. From the statements made by both Myles Garrett and Andrew Berry at the end of the season, everything was fine. However, a couple of weeks ago, Garrett approached the Browns and asked for a trade. The Browns refused. This sequence of events was reported by Dianna Russini (http://@DMRussini ) “While Myles Garrett’s public trade request is the story of the week already, it wasn’t a surprise to the Cleveland Browns—they’ve known about this request for some time.” The next week, Berry reiterated, the Browns were not trading Garrett, then this week Garrett went public. This sounds like negotiating a contract in public. Remember, last year both WR Brandon Alyuk and DE Trey Hendrickson asked to be traded, neither was. When the Ravens and Lamar Jackson were working in a contract extension, the talks broke down and the process became very acrimonious. Things were so bad; Baltimore placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on Jackson. He wanted a fully guaranteed contract, and most local and national beat writers said he had played his last game in Baltimore. Sound familiar.

Finally the draft picks. With Browns fans it’s always about the draft picks. Even if the Browns received three first round picks as compensation, where do those picks fall. If it’s a successful team they’ll be late first round. The draft picks are nice, but it still doesn’t solve the problem of a franchise quarterback. It doesn’t even solve the problem of a good or decent starting quarterback. This is a bad draft for quarterbacks and if Garrett is traded, the team has no money to address the position in free agency. A Garrett trade would set this franchise back three years, as Browns fans are you ready for that? I know I’m not. The front office already has a plan in place to rid them of Deshaun Watson by the second day of the league year in 2027. The best course for both sides is to renegotiate a contract extension in private and make Myles Garrett the highest paid defensive player in the league and keep him in Cleveland for the next three to five years. It’s my belief Garrett will either play out his contract of sign an extension.