While the Cleveland Browns might not know it, they're headed towards a rebuild - and fast.
After another disappointing season due to poor quarterback play, the Browns are now heading into 2025 with a lot more problems than just figuring out who their next starting quarterback will be. They've now got to figure out what to do about Myles Garrett and his open trade request. Despite a plea from David Njoku and Denzel Ward to stay, it seems like Garrett is standing firm on wanting out.
So, Cleveland has a choice - they can honor the request and aim to get back as many assets as possible in a Garrett trade to avoid a total rebuild, or they can reject the request and hope to still have a successful defense in 2025 without Garrett (assuming he sits out in protest). According to one NFL insider, Cleveland is likely to go for the former option.
Browns predicted to trade Garrett this offseason
Sports Illustrated's senior NFL writer Conor Orr wrote up predictions for each NFL team headed into the 2025 season, with the Browns second on the list. Orr predicted that the Browns would, eventually, part ways with Garrett this offseason, and make way for his replacement: Abdul Carter.
"Trading Garrett after the draft, which designates him as a post–June 1 cut and minimizes some of the dead money, will arm Cleveland for a run at the bigger prize looming at the end of this long and sordid path at some point in the distant future: A Manning to pair with family friend and owner Jimmy Haslam," said Orr in his justification for this prediction.
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This would mean that the Browns would go for a quarterback later in the draft instead of at 2nd overall, and would take Carter to soften the blow defensively once Garrett is traded away. It's a solution for their cap space as Orr points out, and it's a solution to their need to tank just a bit in order to potentially land another top pick in 2026. That pick could, then, be Arch Manning.
While it's not a great idea to begin betting on the success of a quarterback that has yet to start for his college team, the 2025 quarterback class is not worth spending a 2nd rounder on unless you are extremely desperate for a signal caller with high upside and not much else.
Trading Garrett would definitely allow Cleveland more flexibility financially in the future, and allow them to exercise that top pick on the best available player left at 2nd overall, which is likely to be Carter. But, it would almost certainly mean a losing season in 2025, and that just gives the vibe of a rebuild.