Myles Garrett dropped a bomb at the beginning of Super Bowl week last Monday. He publicly requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns.
Garrett’s trade request comes a few days after Browns general manager Andrew Berry told local beat writers at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, that he wouldn’t trade Garrett for two first-round picks. At the season-ending press conference in early January, Berry indicated he envisioned Garrett going from Cleveland to Canton, Ohio, where the Pro Football Hall of Fame is located.
Garrett seemingly took exception to Berry’s comment by specifically mentioning that his goal has been never to go from Cleveland to Canton, but to play for Super Bowl titles when asking for a trade. Wanting out of Cleveland conflicts with Garrett suggesting on an episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks: In Season With the AFC North” that the Browns weren’t too far away from playing meaningful football.
The Browns are one season removed from making the playoffs as an 11-win team playing musical chairs at quarterback because of injury. The second overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft was secured because of a 3-14 record, which was eight games worse than in 2023 and the biggest drop in wins for a team during the 2024 season.
The Browns quickly responded that there was no interest in trading Garrett after his public request. Garrett did a media blitz in New Orleans ahead of Super Bowl LIX where he reiterated his desire to play for a Super Bowl contender.
Trade compensation
A team will likely need to blow the Browns away with an offer to get them to reconsider their stance on trading Garrett. The top trade compensation for veteran non-quarterbacks over the last few years is outlined in the chart below.
| Player | Position | Year | Old team | New team | Compensation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Edge |
2018 |
2019 first-round pick (24th), 2019 sixth-round pick, 2020 first-round pick (19th), 2020 third-round pick; Bears also received 2020 second-round pick and conditional 2020 fifth-round pick |
|||
|
OT |
2019 |
2020 first-round pick (26th), 2021 first-round pick (3rd), 2021 second-round pick, S Johnson Bademosi, OT Julién Davenport; Texans also received a 2020 fourth-round pick, 2021 sixth-round pick, WR Kenny Stills |
|||
|
CB |
2019 |
2020 first-round pick (20th), 2021 first-round pick (25th), 2021 fourth-round pick |
|||
|
S |
2020 |
2021 first-round pick (23rd), 2021 third-round pick, 2022 first-round pick (10th), S Bradley McDougald; Seahawks also received 2022 fourth-round pick |
A big difference is all of these players were younger than Garrett and still on their rookie contracts when traded. Garrett turned 29 at the end December.
The eight-year veteran isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. He tied Cincinnati Bengals edge rusher Trey Hendrickson for the NFL lead with 83 quarterback pressures (combined sacks, quarterback hurries and quarterback hits) in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus. Garrett’s 14 sacks trailed only Hendrickson’s 17.5. He topped PFF’s pass-rush win-rate metric at 23.1%. All of this was accomplished while Garrett was being double-teamed on 29% of his pass-rush attempts, which was the most for an edge rusher, according to ESPN Analytics.
Garrett was named first team All-Pro in 2024. It was the fourth time in the last five years he earned the honor. He was a second team All-Pro in 2022 when he tied his career high with 16 sacks.
Garrett is better than any of these players were when traded. He is the only NFL player besides Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor to ever have five straight seasons with 12 or more sacks. Garrett won the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. He repeated as The Sporting News NFL Defensive Player of the Year this season. The last time that happened was in 2014 and 2015 with JJ Watt. The Sporting News is one of the select media outlets approved in the NFL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for player incentives and salary escalators based on individual accolades.
Mack is the player most analogous to Garrett. He was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2016 after 11 sacks and a league-high 96 quarterback pressures during that season, per PFF. Mack had been named first team All-Pro in two of the four NFL seasons he had played when he was dealt to the Bears in 2018.
Trade logistics
Garrett has two years remaining on the five-year, $125 million contract extension he signed in July 2020 to become the NFL’s first $25 million-per-year non-quarterback. He is scheduled to make $19,796,125 in 2025 and $25 million in 2026 for a total of $44,796,125 over the two years.
A team must have enough salary cap room to absorb a player’s current salary in order to make a trade. Once the player is acquired, the new team can renegotiate or restructure his contract to increase/decrease his cap number and/or salary.
Fitting Garrett into another team’s salary cap isn’t the biggest impediment to a trade besides Cleveland’s unwillingness to part with him. It’s the cap consequences for the Browns by trading Garrett.
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Garrett has a $19,722,120 2025 cap number. His original 2025 cap number in his extension was $27,522,245 before a convoluted 2023 contract restructure to create 2023 cap space where multiple option bonuses and five dummy/voiding years running through 2031 were inserted into the deal. Option bonuses are prorated over the life of a contract (up to a maximum of five years), including the option years, beginning in the league year when the option is exercised.
Thanks to the restructure and the option bonuses, the Browns will have $36,216,220 of dead money, a salary cap charge for a player no longer on a team’s roster, by quickly trading Garrett to receive draft choices from the acquiring team for the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft held April 24-26.
The Browns aren’t in the best position to absorb a $16,494,100 increase in cap charges relating to Garrett because of a trade. There are a league-high $341.875 million of 2025 cap commitments under offseason salary cap accounting rules where only the top 51 salaries (i.e. cap numbers) matter. A total of $41.951 million of unused 2024 cap space has been carried over to the 2025 league year, which begins on March 12. Only the San Francisco 49ers carried over more cap space to 2025 than the Browns with just over $50 million.
The Browns are between $24.924 million and $34.924 million over the projected 2025 salary cap, which is expected to be in the $265 million to $275 million range. The Browns have several options to create cap space by restructuring contracts, including much-maligned quarterback Deshaun Watson, or from releasing players. For example, a Watson contract restructure could create as much as $35.976 million of 2025 cap room.
The Browns will need to quickly change their stance on Garrett to keep the dead money from increasing with a trade. There are two 2025 option bonuses in Garrett’s contract. The deadline for the first option is March 14 on the third day of the 2025 league year. A $5 million payment is required to lower Garrett’s 2025 base salary from $19,796,125 to $14,796,125 to pick up a 2028 contract year voiding on the 23rd day preceding the 2027 league year. There’s also a corresponding $5 million option non-exercise fee that’s payable if the option isn’t exercised and Garrett is still a member of Cleveland’s roster on the fourth day of the 2025 league year (March 16).
The dead money increases by $5 million to $41,216,220, but that doesn’t occur during the first couple of days of the 2025 league year. Obviously, Garrett, the Browns and the acquiring team could agree to push back this option exercise deadline if necessary with a trade in the works.
The deadline for the second option is seven days prior to the start of the 2025 regular season, which should be Aug. 28. With this option, a $13,541,125 payment is necessary to lower Garrett’s 2025 base salary from $14,796,125 to $1.255 million to pick up a 2029 contract year that voids on the 23rd day preceding the 2027 league year. There isn’t a corresponding non-exercise fee like with the first 2025 option.
To keep the dead money charges as low as possible for 2025 in either case, the Browns would need to renounce the options and move the option bonus money into 2026. Otherwise, the 2025 proration from the option bonuses would remain a 2025 cap charge and the Browns would get a cap credit in 2026.
This maneuver was made in 2023 prior to Aaron Rodgers‘ trade from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets. It was necessary to prevent the Packers from having adverse cap consequences in 2023.
The Browns would be able to split the dead money over 2025 and 2026 with a trade after June 1. Only the current year’s proration counts toward the salary cap with transactions (releases, retirements and trades) occurring after June 1. The bonus proration in future contract years is delayed until the next league year beginning in the following March.
The Browns would have $15,758,895 of 2025 dead money and $25,457,325 in 2026 with the first option being exercised and the second option renounced. The acquiring team would be getting Garrett with two years remaining on his contract for $39,796,125.
A new Myles Garrett deal
Both sides appear to be playing a high-stakes game of “Chicken” where somebody will eventually blink. Garrett said he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get out of Cleveland. What actions Garrett may take if the Browns continue to be adamant about keeping him remain to be seen.
Presumably, the acquiring team or the Browns will be extending Garrett’s contract in 2025. Garrett’s existing contract is outdated. In four years, he has gone from the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback at $25 million per year to tied for the 20th-highest paid. Garrett had two years left on his rookie contract when he signed the extension.
Nick Bosa is at the top of the NFL edge rusher salary hierarchy with the five-year, $170 million extension averaging $34 million per year he received from the 49ers right before the start of the 2023 regular season. The deal has a non-quarterback record of $122.5 million in overall guarantees and $88 million fully guaranteed at signing.
The highest-paid non-quarterback is Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson. He signed a four-year, $140 million extension last June averaging $35 million per year with $110 million in guarantees, of which $88.743 million was fully guaranteed at signing. The $88.743 million is the most ever fully guaranteed at signing for a non-quarterback.
A new Garrett deal should top Jefferson’s $35 million per year. The contract Garrett signed in 2020 was a 6.38% increase over the top of the existing non-quarterback market. A similar increase this time around would put Garrett at $37.25 million per year.
Putting Garrett aside, the salary bar will surely be raised for non-quarterbacks in 2025. Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons and Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt are entering contract years.
