Myles Garrett #95 of the Cleveland Browns
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Myles Garrett #95 of the Cleveland Browns
It’s late March, that touchy period between the wrapping up of the bulk of NFL free agency and the transactions that will come down before or at the league’s draft next month. Small bits tend to become big news in those situations, and that’s what we might be seeing from the Cleveland Browns and star pass-rusher Myles Garrett this week.
On Wednesday, an odd tidbit came out about a tweak made to the record-breaking contract between the Browns and Garrett, which is just a little more than a year old now. The changes push back the payment dates for some of Garrett’s option bonuses, while changing some of his other payouts to roster bonuses.
The end result is some more flexibility for the Browns with a bit more up-front money coming to Garrett each year. The report came from Field Yates of ESPN, who wrote:
“The Browns and (reigning) Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett agreed to some modified language in his contract this week that provides some cap flexibility for the team going forward, as well as some option bonus payment benefit for Garrett.”
Browns Myles Garrett Contract Changes Spark Speculation
In an article about the changes made between Garrett and the Browns, Yates does not mention the move, at all, in the context of a trade. The reason behind the change was strictly for flexibility. But again, this is late March, so a number of Browns and NFL observers pretty quickly set up the adjustment as the precursor to a Browns trade.
With Cleveland having made a proposed rule change to allow teams to trade draft picks five years into the future–five first-rounders for Myles Garrett?–the conspiracy theories were rife.
Evan Cohen, on ESPN’s “Unsportsmanlike” morning show, said, “I think this sets him up to get traded.”
One report from ESPN Cleveland’s Tony Grossi said, “According to two league sources, the out-of-the-bluecontract modifications on a four-year extension signed a year ago essentially makeGarrett easier to trade.”
Browns Sought Cap Flexibility
Of course, podcaster and fan reporters from all over the league have gotten into the tussle, coming up with their Myles Garrett trade packages for the Browns. It’s entertaining, but then, not very realistic. Veteran Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot was there to rain on any Garrett-getting-traded hypotheses.
She writes: “The Browns and Myles Garrett have agreed to contract modifications that give them cap flexibility, but they have no plans to trade him, a league source tells cleveland.com. The modifications … result in a more team-friendly structure of the contract, which would make him easier to trade, but the Browns have no plans to do so. In fact, if they had wanted to trade him — which they don’t — they wouldn’t have needed to tweak the contract.”
Myles Garrett Staying Put
The Browns, then, have already made a decision on trading Garrett–they’re not going to do it. There probably is some temptation to do so, given the deep well of needs on offense and the fact that the Browns badly need a quarterback, and that amassing draft picks might be their best path to one.
But Garrett has a no-trade clause, for one thing.
For another thing, he is coming off a year in which he broke the NFL’s single-season sack record. He is the best player in the NFL at the most important position on the defense, arguably the second-most important position on an NFL roster. If the Browns have a chance to be competitive this season, it will be because they can construct a near-average offense to go with their outstanding defense.
And it’s Garrett who makes the D outstanding. The Browns won’t be trading a player like that.