Why did Browns decide to trade Garrett to Rams?
Mike Florio and Devin McCourty react to the Browns trading Myles Garrett to the Rams, examining why Cleveland ultimately decided to move on from the star pass rusher.
Video Transcript
Let's get to it.
The first day of the week went by as we were waiting for the inevitable news that A.J.
Brown would be traded by the Eagles to the New England Patriots with the thing that dropped out of nowhere.
Now, I will say this, and for those of you who visit PFT on the weekends in the off-season, first of all, I say thank you because it's hard to get people to show up and read a sports site when they're not working.
When they're not working, they don't have time for the things they do at work when they don't wanna work.
They typically visit us when they're at work.
So if you're visiting on a weekend when you're not working, I thank you.
You may have noticed we had an item over the weekend about the other veteran players beyond A.J.
Brown who could be traded, and the first example listed was Myles Garrett.
And I believed that Myles Garrett was available to be traded regardless of anything that Andrew Berry said for two very important reasons.
Number one, they redid that contract back in March to delay a $29.2 million option bonus from March 15 until seven days before the start of the regular season.
That was the clue.
That made it all hide in plain sight.
There's no reason to not pay him that money.
Unless Jimmy Haslam was having cash flow problems, there's no reason to not pay him that money.
It benefits the Browns.
And why does it benefit him?
He's delaying by six months $29 million.
It makes it easier to trade him.
And then number two, not only did he stay away from the off-season program and give up a million dollars, now he did that last year as well, but he had never met Todd Monken, the new head coach.
When that came out recently, like, how, h- how does this happen where, you know, the last coach had been there six years.
Jim Schwartz was believed to be the successor.
There was some consternation definitely by him and possibly by Garrett and other players when Schwartz left and Monken got the job.
And if you don't meet Todd Monken in three months, four months, five months, however long it's been, that's a little bit of a red flag.
So the, the possibility was there, and the Rams wasted no time getting this deal done on Monday.
I, I was not surprised, but at the same time it was stunning to see it all come through.
S- so was this a little bit of Myles Garrett not liking the approach of the Browns that kind of started all of this, whether it's the contract, not meeting Monken?
Was this kind of, like, in the works just from the Cleveland side of, hey, we gotta, we gotta make a decision and move on from this guy because he's really not happy?
'Cause we heard all of this before, before he signed this new contract of, hey, he wants to be on a contender, they're probably gonna trade him, and then he signs a new contract, and it seemed like, okay, this is the future.
He's just gonna stay and be, you know, the second Joe Thomas of the Cleveland Browns.
So did all of this kind of start from the Cleveland side of having to really get rid of Myles Garrett?
I'd like to think that Cleveland finally got smart about the situation, Devin, because last year, February of 2025, while we were all in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, that's when Myles Garrett very strategically timed his statement that he wants to be traded.
Came to Radio Row, did the rounds explaining himself.
It was very non-emotional.
It was very matter-of-fact.
It was very well-reasoned.
He wants to move on to a team where he has a chance to compete for a championship.
And what the Browns did then, they reacted the same way they did when they were told by Deshaun Watson that they were the first team out of the four-team contest to secure that trade with the Texans four years ago.
It was the Panthers, the Falcons, the Saints, and the Browns.
I'm thinking, who's the fourth team?
The Browns.
The Browns were the first team out, and they swing back around with a fully guaranteed five-year $230 million contract in order to win the competition.
So the Browns have shown that they'll throw money at something to solve a problem, so they threw money at Myles Garrett.
40 million a year in new money average.
They shouldn't have.
Our first reaction last year, Sims and I, when this all came up, this is the time to trade him.
This is the time to maximize the asset.
Mm-hmm.
This is the time to get back some of what you gave up to get Deshaun Watson.
When you get Deshaun Watson, you know, we focus on the contract.
They gave up three first round picks plus.
Those are players that become the nucleus of your team.
They're the Devin McCourties who stay there for 12 years as first round picks, that they grow with the team.
They provide leadership to the team.
You swap those picks out and you bring in a guy who's, you know, a veteran, like what the Rams typically do.
We'll get to them eventually.
But when you are the Browns and you have a guy that you're never gonna be able to complement with enough of a supporting cast to get him where he wants to go, by the time all these things you're doing now as you replenish post Watson come to fruition, Myles Garrett's gonna be beyond his prime.
Now's the time to sell.
Now's the time to maximize the value you can get for your contract.
And the old saying is, wisdom never comes What is it?
I already got it screwed up.
Wisdom of- wisdom often never comes at all.
You shouldn't reject it simply because it was late.
A year later, the Browns, I think, figured out, "Hey, this guy just had 23 sacks, and what did it do for us?"
Yeah.
"What did it do for us?
We got this guy who's the best defensive player in the NFL, and what does it do for us?
We're still the worst team in the division.
Having this one guy doesn't make a difference for us, so let's be smart."
You know, they're analytical about everything.
Every player, every transaction, every draft pick is reduced to a mathematical equation, so why don't you do the same thing with Myles Garrett?
What can you get for Myles Garrett?
And we see that they're able to trade him and, and not just-Bring in a bunch of young talent, but also not have to continue to pay him these large amounts of money.
The cynical side of me, too, last point, Devin, cynical side, a year ago it wasn't as clear they were getting that new stadium as it is now.
I, there's still some issues with the public money mechanism in Ohio, but they're very confident they're getting the stadium.
They've broken ground on the stadium.
So maybe a year ago there was some concern that if we trade Myles Garrett, public sentiment is gonna swing against our effort to get- taxpayer money to build our new stadium.
Now that they got it, we, we, it's okay if the fans don't like the fact- that Myles Garrett's been traded.
I mean, that makes sense.
And for me, last year it stuck out, and, and I agree with you and Sims even then, but, like, you watch the New England Patriot game and Myles Garrett has five sacks in one game, and everyone goes crazy, and you kind of forget, like, they lost 32 to 13 to the Patriots in a game where a guy flat out dominates the game, gets five sacks, and he scored 13 points, and he gave up 32 points in a game.
It, it's, it's the simple fact of, you know, I remember being in New England, and Coach Belichick said to us when, you know, our team was kind of growing, it was like 2011, 2012, and tough decisions had to be made of which players do you keep, which players do you get rid of?
And he said, "Hey, it's easy when you're a bad team.
When you're a bad team, bad teams just continue to just keep all their good players, and they continue to be bad teams."
He said, "Good teams have to make tough decisions on, how do we think about winning right now, but also the future?
So how do we keep good veteran players?
Which good veteran players do we keep?
Which young players do we extend?
How do we balance out and keep this team together?"
And I thought about that, and I'm like, "Yes, that's what it That is what bad teams do."
You have these, I mean, generational players like Myles Garrett, and you sit there, and you love it 'cause every Sunday you turning on the game, and you never know what he might do.
It might be this incredible game.
It might be 23 sacks in a season.
But then when you're done, you look at the standings, and you haven't moved.
You're still one of the worst teams in the league.
So how do you change that?
I think you decide, "Hey, I'm gonna make this big decision and move on."
And credit to them because it was only a year later.
A lot of times in these situations we look up, and a team moves on a little too late, and they don't maximize what they could get for a guy.
And I think in this situation for Cleveland, not only do you get the draft pick so you get the hope of the future, for your fan base, you know, it, it's not Myles Garrett, but it helps bringing a young player who was a first-round pick two years ago, but now instead of just being that first-round pick, you see, all right, he was Rookie Defensive Player of the Year.
We see the fire in which he plays the game with, and you see the upside.
Now you hope, okay, you have this young player who was in a really good situation on the Rams.
I think the biggest thing is you have to impact him and selling to him what Cleveland could be because I think that's the hard thing when you look at a guy like Jarrett Verse.
You come out there, you go out and you play well, you're in all these big games, and now you're gonna go to Cleveland, which historically over the last few years, you, you're not gonna be in those games.
You're not gonna be that team that matters.
How do you still encourage and motivate that player to get better and want to be in Cleveland?
I think that's the thing that they have to, and that's why when you make these kind of trades, you have to hit on the compensation that you get.
You have to draft those guys you spoke about, those guys that end up being big-time players and longtime Cleveland Browns.
Because if not, the guys that are there, the better players you have, they're gonna want out.
They're not gonna want the same path of Myles Garrett 'cause they're not gonna get the payment and all of those things that come with being Myles Garrett.
You could be a good player and realize, "Hey, being in Cleveland is just, is not it, and I wanna get out of there."
So, hey, for Andrew Berry, he's had some time now to kind of turn this around, and hopefully these draft picks turn into what last year was, where they did hit in the draft and they had some good players, and now they have to try to build off that.
