Cleveland Browns edge-rusher Myles Garrett is the heart-and-soul of his team’s defense, but eight seasons into his NFL career, the 29-year-old former No. 1 overall pick doesn’t seem keen on being a part of another rebuild in Cleveland.
He even said as much last week when he told reporters that he would consider asking for a trade if the front office planned to hit the reset button.
“I mean first of all I want to win. I want the Browns to be able to put me and us in position to win. I’m not trying to rebuild,” Garrett said last week. “I want that to be apparent, when the season’s over and we have those discussions, I want them to be able to illuminate that for me, illustrate that for me, so that can be something that I can see in the near future.”
Garrett is under contract for two more seasons, but the Browns are $17.36 million over the salary cap next season, according to Over the Cap. If Cleveland were to trade him pre-June 1, it would incur a dead-cap penalty of $36.21 million.
The team doesn’t have much financial wiggle room to build a contender around Garrett either with large contracts that carry heavy dead-cap penalties like Deshaun Watson ($172.7M), Denzel Ward ($42.8M), Jerry Jeudy ($36.3M), and David Njoku ($20.87M).
So after the Browns’ embarrassing 35-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday in the team’s season finale, Garrett was asked about his future given the team’s 3-14 finish, to which he gave a cryptic answer.
“There will be something coming,” Garrett responded.
It’s not known whether Garrett meant a trade request or a contract extension was in the works, but fans took to social media to put forth their best guess.
“Myles knows what's comin'.... he gone....” one fan stated.
“The cap hit from trading him makes it a 0.0000% chance of happening. They can't afford paying that and Watson for no production in return,” another responded.
“He could mean a trade or an extension you can’t look too far into this rn…” remarked one user.
“Feel for the dude man, he is loyal to that franchise and loves Cleveland. But it's time to think about himself, he doesn't deserve anything less than to ring chase and Cleveland is [expletive],” another quipped.
“My wishful thinking believes this means extension coming soon,” another fan wrote.
