Myles Garrett has requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns, basically indicating that the team is not contending for a Super Bowl. Now many trade requests sound ominous and often are solved with a contract extension, and Garrett is one of the most underpaid veterans relative to production at this point, but let’s assume that the request is genuine. Can the Browns afford to trade Garrett?
The Browns salary cap situation is among the worst in the NFL. They have followed a similar model as the Philadelphia Eagles regarding cap management but have not had the same success stories in player acquisition as the Eagles. Currently the Browns are estimated to be about $30 million over the salary cap and rank 4th in the NFL with 40% of their players with at least a $2M cap charge having a low P5 on the books, meaning they can’t create cap room with those players.
The Browns will easily become salary cap compliant with the restructure of Deshaun Watson’s contract which will open up $36M in cap room. They will save about $9M with a restructure of Denzel Ward. After that the cap savings are small. Cutting Jack Conklin saves $4M. Restructuring Joel Bitonio opens up $4M. Restructuring Wyatt Teller is also about $4M. There are minimal players to cut for cap relief and most other restructures will open up a few million here and there.
The cost on the cap to trade Garrett would make things difficult for the Browns. Garrett currently counts for $19.722M on the cap and a trade would leave the team with at least $36.2M in dead money, a loss of $16.5M in cap room, basically negating three of the moves mentioned above and leaving the team with a pretty rough cap situation. To keep the number at $36.2M the team would need to modify Garrett’s contract to remove the option bonuses he has for this year and shift the money to 2026. If that was not done then the dead money would increase due to the option prorations with an offset to that money coming in 2026. There is precedent to do such a renegotiation to avoid the option acceleration as Aaron Rodgers and the Packers did a similar move when he was traded to the Jets.
The easier path for the Browns would be to wait until after the draft to make a trade when they can use the rules for June 1 salary cap treatment to their advantage. The problems with that are that they would have to pay him $5 million as an option bonus in the interim and they would receive zero compensation this year for him. For a rebuilding team that might not be an issue but the Browns don’t likely look at themselves as rebuilding, they simply see themselves as needing a QB with a pulse to compete with a pretty expensive roster.
If the Browns opted for that path the cost to trade would be either $15.6M in dead money if the remainder of the option was removed from the contract or $18.43M if it was not removed with an offset of the difference coming in 2026. The team would then defer $25.5M of dead money to 2026 when it will be easier to digest on the cap.
The team acquiring Garrett if a trade was made in the summer would be responsible for $14.8M this year and $25M next year. In theory they can manipulate the cap hits however they want, but in reality they will likely be extending Garrett. A market for a player like Garrett is a bit of an unknown. He is the best defensive lineman in football but will turn 30 at the end of the 2025 season. In the interim some data points could be found if the Steelers extend TJ Watt, but given the recent contracts signed by Aaron Donald and Chris Jones my expectation would be in the ballpark of $35 million a season on a three year extension.
Given the nature of the trade request, age, and likely extension that would come with this I doubt that the Browns would be looking at a massive haul of multiple 1st round picks. They certainly should get one first round pick for him but after that it is probably a mid round pick with some kind of escalation conditions.
It is really hard to make a compelling case for the Browns to consider this trade. It really isn’t good for the short term health of their salary cap and really isn’t in the interest of their long term healthy either given his production relative to the low salary in his deal. The Browns should believe they are a playoff contender regardless of how bad things have been. You don’t move players like Garrett on a contending team. This will likely take awhile to sort itself out but I would expect the Browns to hold onto a no trade stance at least until we hit some type of significant hold out portion of the offseason or a team really blows them away with a trade offer.