Myles Garrett, the Cleveland Browns star defensive pass rusher, demanded a trade a year ago from the team. He went on a media tour blitz and made his case. In the end, it was all talk as the Browns gave their best player a four-year, $160 million extension, which locked him in through the 2030 season.
Despite that fact, there are many out there who still like to play these fictional games where they are still trading Garrett. In this latest example of a make-believe trade, Justin Carter of FanSided suggested that Cleveland trade Myles Garrett to the NFC powerhouse San Francisco 49ers. The trade would involve two first-round picks being dealt to Cleveland in exchange for Garrett. The article's premise suggested that this trade should happen (but it won’t).
If anything could have happened as far as a trade of Garrett, it would have happened last offseason. Cleveland was coming off a horrible 3-14 season, and things around the team, from coaching concerns to the fiasco at the quarterback position, would have made a move much more understandable. Cleveland’s ownership, however, buckled down and decided to go all in on Garrett.
The contractual obligations of the team are enormous at this point. When you study the current Garrett contract, the cap hit to the Browns goes up every year of the contract. Right now, the hit is almost $25 million in 2026 and goes up to almost $58 million by the 2030 season.
The good news, though, is that most of the contract extension, almost $90 million, was paid to Garrett at the time of his extension last offseason. So on that end, the dead cap hit to the team by the 2029 season would only be $4.9 million.
Myles Garrett is not being traded anytime soon
At this point, Garrett’s mindset is probably on breaking sack records and setting himself up to be a future Hall of Famer, rather than being the center of trade chatter like an offseason ago. Like most star athletes, he probably wants to win and help Cleveland be more successful, but after so many years in the league (nine seasons), those individual accomplishments likely become more of a focal point for him.
With all the money talk around Garrett’s contract, and his extension from last offseason, many of these bogus trade ideas will never make much sense, even though some think they should happen.
Garrett and the Browns should've won a Super Bowl by now, but they haven't. It's fun to make up some of these phony trade and story ideas, but it doesn't get you anything other than a few laughs.