It’s been almost three weeks since Myles Garrett made it clear he wants out at Cleveland, but the Browns and general manager Andrew Berry seem to have no interest in moving their All-Pro defensive end.
Cleveland finished the season at the bottom of the AFC North with a 3-14 record — tied for the worst record in the NFL along with the New York Giants and the Tennessee Titans.
Garrett is clearly on a different timeline from his team; Cleveland needs to rebuild while the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year wants to win now.
Robert Mays was joined by Browns beat writer Zac Jackson to discuss Berry, Garrett and the Browns’ next moves on the latest episode of “The Athletic Football Show.”
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in “The Athletic Football Show” feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Robert: If you were trying to chart the best 12 months for the Cleveland Browns right now, where would you start?
Zac: I would trade Myles Garrett. If I was Andrew Berry, I know why he doesn’t want to but I would look at that and maximizing that as my chance to save my job. You look at the whole organization; they’re trying to build a stadium and they want Berry and (head coach Kevin) Stefanski to work clearly. This group is not working. This group is two really good drafts away from being back as a playoff contender. Where it goes with these older guys — retirement, contracts and performance — is vital. David Njoku just didn’t perform last year. He wasn’t in shape, he didn’t perform and he wasn’t healthy.
Where do they go? They have to get younger. Obviously the easy thing to say is, “Nail the quarterback.” Then that way if you only win five games but you have a quarterback going forward, you finally have that at least. That’s the simplest way to say it because the simplest way to say everything else is this (Deshaun) Watson thing just killed this run of it. It’s going to get everybody fired — it just is — barring drafting the right one right now.
Robert: What do you think is the main deterrent to them trading Garrett right now? Is it just an admission that this is so (messed up) we have no other options?
Zac: Yes. That would be 1A. 1B is the immediate cap hit that it would be.
Robert: $17 million more than he’s slated to make right now. (Note: In the event of a trade before June 1, the Browns take a hit of $16.49 million against the cap.)
Zac: Correct, then you’d have to sacrifice other guys. But the thing with that is you are sacrificing other guys because if you move on, you move from him. It really comes down to the human nature of Berry does not want to be the guy that acquired Watson and traded Garrett. They don’t want to trade Garrett, but I think Garrett has made up his mind. The path forward for this team is to maximize that. I don’t know whether they’ll get two ones, but I know they’ll get a package of picks and potentially a young player — they need both. They need to move forward. If they wait until after June 1 to lessen this cap hit (the Browns would save $4.96 million in that case) and push for the future, I’m fine with that. It’s going to require some long-term planning, and we don’t know who’s going to be here calling the shots.
Robert: You feel like there’s more uncertainty with the draft picks that you’re going to get, and the returns are probably going to be less than they would be if you trade him before the draft. There is so many different factors to weigh there.
Zac: Coming out of the season here’s what I thought. They know that they’re not ready, but they’re going to pretend and they’re going to put out that they are. So they could wait until October and see “Are we on to something with our rookie quarterback? Are we on to something with our stopgap quarterback, whomever that’s going to be?” Then see and maybe hold an auction in October. But I think Myles has said, “I’m not coming back guys.” Especially if (Joel) Bitonio walks away, they’re going to have to say, “Where are we really? Aren’t we best looking two years down the road?”
Robert: This is anecdotal, but if you look back on the bigger trades that we’ve seen in the NFL over the last 10 or so years, not all of them happened pre-draft. Khalil Mack was right before the season started and that was two first-round picks. But I still feel like the biggest returns you’re going to get are probably earlier in the offseason before teams have settled. It’s a different situation, but the Browns got a third-round pick for Amari Cooper. So two first-round picks in October feels like it’s probably a bridge too far for some of those teams that are looking to acquire Myles Garrett at that point in the season.
Zac: Yeah, I agree. Right now every team is here and ready to go with their plans — a Plan A and a Plan B. Before the heavy spending and huge commitments, if some team is legitimately a Garrett contender and five or six teams legitimately are, they want to know now because that’s their Plan A. They don’t want to commit to other things and then see Garrett’s available. I think he still would be available and still could fit, but you’re right.
Ideally, the Browns are entertaining offers here. The timing is on their side and they have the leverage in some respect because they can say, “Hey, this is going to kill us. This is a generational player so you have to up the ante.” Say the Packers or the Bills make them an offer, they can go to Detroit and ask for more. You’re right it doesn’t have to be before March 10. But there’s a case to be made, and you made it pretty well, for doing it sometime in these next two weeks.
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(Top Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
