Rumors are flying despite Browns saying they won’t trade Myles Garrett
With star defensive end Myles Garrett requesting a trade on Tuesday, people are wondering what the Cleveland Browns will do. The majority of people believe that the Browns will cave in and trade Garrett, while a small portion believe that they will not do anything and keep Garrett. It’s a complicated situation but Cleveland isn’t obligated to trade Garrett and they also aren’t obligated to start over if they do trade him.
Why won’t the Browns trade Garrett?
If you follow the Cleveland Browns long enough, you would know how they operate in terms of dealing with trade requests. Tight end David Njoku requested a trade before the 2020 season but later rescinded the request. Quarterback Baker Mayfield requested a trade when the team looked to explore upgrades at the quarterback position. The team denied his request initially but ended up trading him to the Carolina Panthers later on.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr requested multiple times to be traded during the 2020 offseason and during the 2021 season, yet the team didn’t fulfill his request (he was later released).
You see where this is going.
Cleveland has all the leverage in this situation, and they are dead set on not moving him according to all reports. General manager Andrew Berry is essentially in a lose-lose situation, he could end up not trading Garrett and risk him potentially sitting out (which is unlikely due to the amount of money being lost) or trading him and becoming more disliked than he is now and weaken the Browns greatly.
Why the Browns shouldn’t trade Garrett and essentially start over
I am going to be brutally honest right now. After the 2020 season in which the Browns made the divisional round, people were saying the Browns were building towards being a Super Bowl contender.
They weren’t.
The team was entering uncharted territory, yet no one knew it. No one expected them to make a swing (which ended up being trading for QB Deshaun Watson), but at the same time they had no choice. The team had to do something and if they didn’t, Garrett probably would have requested a trade sooner rather than later. The swing backfired and it led to this situation. However, starting a rebuild by trading Garrett wouldn’t be a wise idea.
One of the many reasons why Cleveland struggled to be taken seriously is because of the constant roster turnover and going through regimes like packs of gum. For as much as people complain about the team not having continuity, when the opportunity comes to maintain it the opinions change.
The Browns never had a Super Bowl window, but some will question if they have a playoff window with Garrett. However, this team made the playoffs just last season. If Cleveland were to start over, what makes us think that rebuild won’t end up failing like previous ones? It’s a valid concern, but it also signals the team giving up instead of attempting to right their wrongs quickly
So many decisions this offseason and the decisions will be uncomfortable ones but there are more options than just keeping Garrett or fully tearing down and rebuilding.