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Browns' Myles Garrett: No hard feelings after trade demand, contract extension
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- Browns' Myles Garrett: No hard feelings after trade demand, contract extension
BEREA — The toy dinosaurs lined across the dais weren't the only things extinct Friday. So, too, was any lingering contentiousness or bad blood from Myles Garrett's trade demand standoff -turned-contract extension with the Cleveland Browns .
At least, that's how Garrett said he feels. He also said he doesn't think he needs to make amends to those who might have been offended by his stance he wanted to be somewhere he could win the Super Bowl.
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"No, I mean, from day one I've always said that I've wanted to bring a championship to the Northeast Ohio, so that doesn't change my stance," Garrett said Friday. "I'm just going to continue to turn those opinions around or reinforce those opinions by going out and doing what I've always done — going out and make plays, being a great teammate, great leader, and being the best person I could be on this field and off the field for Cleveland Browns ."
Garrett made his first public comments since it came out last Sunday he was signing a new four-year extension that makes him the highest-paid non-quarterback with a $40 million average annual value. That extension came after a monthlong cold war between the four-time All-Pro and the team that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2017 after he made his demand to be traded to a contender known the Monday before the Super Bowl.
The journey between that Feb. 3 demand and the extension had more than its share of public vitriol, with both sides digging in and bracing for a long standoff. Privately, though, diplomacy was giving way to a resolution that ultimately put Garrett back on the "Cleveland to Canton" path Browns general manager Andrew Berry repeatedly said he expected for the six-time Pro Bowler.
"Just having constant communication with the team, AB, or just management in general" Garrett said. "Talking about the plans and the future of this team and how we can turn this around and turn Cleveland into a winner as soon as possible."
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Garrett first went public with his concerns over the Browns' future in mid-December, saying he wanted to get an idea of the organization's plan to turn things around from the 3-14 disaster that was last season. He got his initial meeting with Berry and others at the top of the organization immediately after the season.
The difference between the message Garrett heard in January and the one that ultimately helped lead to the final resolution was as much about context as anything. It wasn't necessarily that the message changed as much as the message took on a more solid shape.
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett during practice Aug. 4, 2024, at the Browns training facility in Berea, Ohio.
"I would say it became more reinforced and developed as time went on," Garrett said. "Just a little more time from the season, seeing how things developed and progressed with each team making moves and the combine and the draft coming up. A lot of dominoes just started to fall and things just started to fall in place."
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There was also the added benefit of the 2024 season fading into the past. Despite having gone through 0-16 as a rookie, Garrett has called last year the most frustrating of his career.
Garrett didn't just deal with losing at a clip he hadn't been at since his rookie season, there were also various nagging injuries that lingered throughout the year. And all of that happened while the Browns were coming off a playoff appearance in 2023.
"Taking some time away," Garrett said, "not only from the season, but just for myself, just getting away from football for a bit, just helps decompress and come back with a little bit more clear-headedness. I think at the end of the day I made the right decision for myself and as well as for the Browns. I'm still happy to come back and play with all of these guys."
Those "guys" were the same ones who could've taken Garrett's demands personally. It's easy to do just that when a player says he wanted to go to a "contender," which would imply a lack of belief in his current teammates.
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Those teammates, though, were part of the reason why Garrett said he signed the extension. They were also part of the communications he had between the demand and the resolution.
Several of Garrett's teammates had said that, while shocked by the demand, they understood it wasn't personal. Garrett said he's tried the emphasize that in conversations with them.
"I mean, I had conversations with my teammates and some of the leaders on the team, as well as my position room," Garrett said. "They understand that it's part of the business. They want to be successful as well. It's always difficult at the end of the season when you underachieve and things don't go your way.
"I don't want it to go understated, how much they had an impact on this decision to come back with the things they had to say and the appeal they had towards coming back and doing things over again. Just making these minor tweaks that we saw that could make a massive difference."
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The kind of difference that could ultimately lead to a Super Bowl? That was the stated goal Garrett had with his trade demand, that he wanted to go to a team where he could win football's ultimate prize.
Garrett's been active in at least one part of the Browns' offseason plans — being at the facility Thursday when free-agent quarterback Russell Wilson visited. The next step, at least for him, involves him continuing his own personal evolution as a player that already has made him among the best defensive players of his generation, a past NFL Defensive Player of the Year, the only player since the sack became an official statistic in 1982 to have five consecutive seasons with 14 sacks and the youngest player to reach 100 career sacks.
"It's going to take everything, and whatever it takes, I'm willing to give," Garrett said. "I want to be a winner. I want to bring a championship back to Cleveland. So whether that's going out and recruiting, whether that's staying late, that's mentoring the young guys, just whatever it takes, I'm going to do it all because I don't want to come back here the same way we did after last season. I don't want that feeling ever again. I want to feel like we're taking more and more strides to that promise land."
This story has been updated with new information.
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Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Myles Garrett still wants to bring NFL title to Cleveland, NE Ohio
