Let me preface this entire piece by informing the reader that the Cleveland Browns are an absolute mess. In the offseason, fans of 31 NFL franchises anxiously log on-line to see if there's any morsel of news regarding their favorite team - just something to hold them over until the next NFL event hits the calendar.
Browns fans have developed something of an anxiety with seeing the news. Once in a blue moon are the Browns making news for the right reasons. Usually, it's some harrowing story, like their head coach scoring 30th on the player survey, or their best player requesting a trade. Or, their already highly polarizing quarterback re-tearing a freshly torn achilles. The hits keep coming.
While no miracle-worker can solve this in a day without some divine intervention, today we will focus on that trade request.
Let's be clear here: the Cleveland Browns should not trade Myles Garrett. Whether it's a contractual adjustment, a look behind the curtain into team plans to encourage the star, or making him the mayor of Cleveland, the Browns should do everything they can to keep him in town.
Garrett is a bona fide Hall of Famer. The mere embodiment of what that draft day hope is - where expectation meets reality, and off-the-charts prospect reaches and exceeds all that's reasonable and becomes legendary. Why would the Browns ever entertain trading someone like this?
However, if he remains steadfast that he has no interest in continuing his career in Cleveland, the Browns need to prioritize having volunteers, not hostages. While doom-scrolling what is going on with this beloved franchise, there was an interesting idea that came across the waves.
Mike Florio proposed a wild Myles Garrett trade that actually makes sense
Myles Garrett has requested a trade and he indicated he wants to go to a contender.
Contender is a bit of a nuanced term - logical people would still have a wide array of answers to what contenders are.
But, if the Browns are to move on from their single greatest player since their rebirth, the return would need to be significant, and many 'contenders', at least in the traditional sense, don't have the cap space to account for someone with cap hits nearing $20 million in each of the next 2 seasons.
An interesting concept would be - you could have Garrett, but you're going to have to take the remaining years of Deshaun Watson, too. The most viable team for such a proposal would be the New England Patriots. Stay with me, and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, here.
New England is not a contender in the traditional sense, no. But, they just hired the highly-accomplished Mike Vrabel (who was in Cleveland this past season) as their new head coach, and have a young and more importantly, cheap, quarterback under contract for the next few years.
Who knows what could happen? They also most certainly need an edge rusher, but - to be fair - every team could use Garrett.
Flush with a league-leading $120 million in cap space, the Patriots might be up for some kind of arrangement. Let's say the Browns ship Watson, and his $46 million base salary (which would be the cap hit taken on by the Patriots in 2025 and 2026), and Myles Garrett to the northeast.
Further, the Patriots would likely want to reward their newly-minted, best player with a new contract to keep him in tow for the remainder of his prime.
A hypothetical contract comparison could be that of Nick Bosa, the currently highest paid edge defender in the NFL (5 years, $170 million, $88 million guaranteed). We surmise that Garrett would at least surpass these numbers, so we'll call it a 5-year $175 million contract with $100 million guaranteed.
The contract can be structured in a way to backload the cap hits, particularly with a massive signing bonus, making eating the Watson money more palatable.
The Browns would ship Deshaun Watson ($46 million cap hit) and Myles Garrett (hypothetically $10 million cap hit) to the Patriots. Garrett's number would go up in 2027, but Watson would already be long gone from the books. This would leave the Patriots with roughly $72 million in cap space to fill out the remainder of their roster, which would still be the 3rd most space in the entire NFL.
I'm sure you have some questions: what do the Browns get, does this help the Browns in 2025, is this even real life. Luckily, I've got some answers. First of all, no, this isn't real life.
But, secondly, in return for hypothethically getting rid of Watson, the Browns would get a significantly smaller haul back for Garrett. Think of that Brock Osweiler trade the Browns made back in 2017, where the Browns essentially bought a 2nd round pick (that became Nick Chubb, by the way.)
This trade would need to be consummated after June 1st. Shipping both Garrett and Watson out before then would create a financial pretzel that Warren Buffett himself could not untangle. When it comes to compensation, a realistic starting point would like be something like a 2026 2nd round pick and 4th round pick with the Browns throwing in a 5th. The trade could look something like this:
You might be underwhelmed with the return. First off, the post-June 1st nature of the trade doesn't allow for any 2025 draft picks to trade hands because the draft is in April.
Additionally, some may be wondering if New England's ownership is willing to pay Watson the remaining $92 million in order to consummate a deal like this. Consider, there are no rules preventing the Browns from agreeing to pay any portion of his salary, despite the full cap charge being the burden of New England.
While I cannot pretend to understand how billionaires rationalize things, I can say that the Browns paid $17 million for a 2nd round pick in 2017, so this shouldn't be out of the question.
In summation, the Browns lose their best player, but also free themselves of their biggest obstacle. They get some draft carrots in return, and look to recover from what is likely the most significant trade blunder in NFL history. Or, the Browns' fans could be forced to suffer for two more years with Watson, before the team can take another shot that maybe, just maybe, will go in.