Myles Garrett Seeks Trade Ahead of Massive Extension Coming

Super Bowl week started with a trade request. 

Browns star pass rusher Myles Garrett requested a trade out of Cleveland on Monday after eight seasons with the team. 

Garrett said in a statement posted to X by NFL Network that while he’s loved calling Cleveland home, his goal was always to “compete for and win a Super Bowl.”

The Browns are coming off a 3–14 season that saw them lose quarterback Deshaun Watson to an Achilles tear, which he reinjured in January while rehabbing. The team holds the No. 2 overall pick in April’s draft, and Garrett, who the team selected No. 1 overall in 2017, told reporters in December that he doesn’t want to be part of another rebuild and wanted to see a plan from the team’s higher-ups. 

“I’m trying to win right now,” Garrett said then. “I want to stay loyal to a team that showed loyalty to me and faith in me by drafting me. But we have to do, at the end of the day, what’s best for us. So, if we have that alignment where this is something that is still possible in the near future — winning, going deep in the playoffs, putting a great defense out there… I think that would really keep my mind at rest and keep me settled.”

Garrett played in all 17 games and was second in the NFL in sacks with 14. He has two years left on a five-year $125 million extension he signed in 2020 before becoming a free agent at age 32. Speculating on X, Spotrac expects Garrett to command a new contract spanning about four years and $137 million, which would be a $14 million increase in annual salary and put him among the game’s highest paid at his position. 

Garrett’s $25 million-a-year average that once made him the highest paid defensive end in the NFL has since been topped repeatedly, with 49ers’ star Nick Bosa making $34 million per year. 

Should he get dealt, the return for Garrett could rival what the Raiders got for Khalil Mack when the Bears acquired him in 2018. Mack, then 27, was traded for two first-round picks, a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick. The Raiders attached a second-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick to Mack in the trade. 

The Browns have publicly said they have no interest in trading Garrett as recently as last week. 

“I think you can assume that we do anticipate at some point doing a third contract with Myles,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry told reporters Jan. 28 at the Senior Bowl. “We want him to retire here.”

Based on his actions, Garrett doesn’t feel the same way.