Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett in Italy supporting Chloe Kim.
Getty
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett in Italy supporting Chloe Kim.
The Washington Commanders are going to make waves no matter what this offseason, but they could make the ultimate splash by dropping a godfather trade offer on the Cleveland Browns for defensive end Myles Garrett.
Garrett asked out of Cleveland ahead of the 2025 campaign, but a $160 million contract extension silenced those demands. In the interim, the team went 4-13, fired its head coach and realized, yet again, that it has no answers at the quarterback position.
The Browns have been adamant that they don’t intend to trade the reining Defensive Player of the Year following his record-breaking season of 23 sacks. But Garrett’s market value is never going to be higher than it is right now, even at the age of 30 (he will turn 31 in December).
A common refrain from bad teams is that they aren’t in the business of moving on from good players, and definitely not great ones, because acquiring and keeping those talents is how a franchise wins.
But Cleveland has proven over Garrett’s nine-year NFL career that it can’t win meaningfully no matter how exceptional he is, making the playoffs twice and winning just one postseason game over that span.
The front office and ownership have tasked new head coach Todd Monken with rebuilding the offense, essentially from scratch, in his own image. The best way to do that is with draft picks. And the best way to get serious draft capital is to trade Garrett.
One team that can help meaningfully in that regard is the Commanders, who must improve dramatically if head coach Dan Quinn hopes to avoid the hot seat heading into 2027.
Myles Garrett Trade Can Be Commanders’ Answer on Defense, While Team Uses Free Agency to Address Offense
Myles Garrett #95 of the Cleveland Browns
GettyDefensive end Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns.
The Commanders hold just one selection inside the top 70, which happens to come at No. 7 in Round 1. The Browns already hold pick Nos. 6 and 24 on Day 1 of this year’s draft.
The smart play for Washington would probably be to use that No. 7 selection on one of the top three edge-rushers in the 2026 class, after which there is a significant drop off at the position.
However, dealing the pick, along with their first-round and second-round selections in 2027, could potentially secure for the Commanders in the form of Garrett the best possible version/finished product of any rookie pass-rusher they could hope to find this April.
That isn’t thinking longterm necessarily, but Washington was in the NFC Championship Game just one year ago. The Commanders have almost $88 million in salary cap space and are going to spend big in free agency, particularly at skill positions on offense.
Adding Garrett via a trade and inking Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker III along with a quality wide receiver in free agency, then teaming all of them up with a healthy Jayden Daniels, is a good formula for Washington to strong-arm its way back into relevancy in the NFC next season.
Commanders Would Likely Win Trade With 3-4 More Elite Years From Myles Garrett
Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett is focused on winning.
GettyCleveland Browns pass-rusher Myles Garrett.
The draft haul of two firsts (2026, 2027) and a second (2027) is enormous. However, if it gets the Commanders Garrett, then it doesn’t make the team worse next season. It makes them better.
And if he can play near the top of the NFL for the next three to four years, which is not unheard of for an athletic specimen at the pass-rushing position based on Garrett’s age and the historical context of the league, that is an overall victory for Washington, even despite surrendering three high picks in such a deal.
In most scenarios, a rebuilding team trading a player like Garrett would want the bulk of its compensation immediately. But the Browns are in a unique spot with three picks inside the top 40 already, including two in the first round.
Picking up a second top-10 asset this year, plus two potentially high selections in the first and second rounds in 2027, is the perfect kind of trade math to maximize inexpensive rookie talent acquisition under a new coaching regime in Cleveland.