To the surprise of few who have followed the situation since the 2024 season, Cleveland Browns star pass-rusher Myles Garrett is once again frustrated with the state of the team after it opened the ongoing campaign with five losses in six games.
Understandably, some members of the NFL community have begun to wonder if the Browns could reconsider Garrett’s future with the franchise ahead of the Nov. 4 trade deadline after he signed a massive contract extension this past offseason. For a piece published on Wednesday, Browns reporter Zac Jackson of The Athletic addressed the renewed Garrett trade chatter.
What would Browns want in return for Myles Garrett?
“Only a team offering three first-round picks for Garrett would make the Browns even begin to start crunching the numbers, and the Dallas Cowboys likely won’t do that,” Jackson explained. “Garrett spent the end of last season and the start of the offseason telling the truth about the state of the Browns and saying he wanted to play for a contender, but then he chose to sign a new deal that likely will keep him in Cleveland at least for the next three seasons — and potentially for the rest of his career.”
Specifically, Garrett signed a four-year, $160M contract extension that included $123.5M guaranteed to stay with the Browns, not long after he went public with a trade request in early February. According to Zachary Pereles of CBS Sports, Garrett’s contract would carry a dead salary-cap hit of nearly $68M for next season if he’s traded before Nov. 4. That said, history shows that teams almost always find solutions to such possible financial setbacks in “the salary cap isn’t real” world of the NFL.
Jackson mentioning Dallas was no accident, as Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones traded pass-rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for two first-round draft picks and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark in late August. More recently, Jones insisted this week that he believes his 2-3-1 Cowboys “are still in it” regarding the upcoming postseason tournament.
Have Browns slammed the door shut on trading Myles Garrett before 2026?
“There’s a strong, strong chance that Garrett is going nowhere,” Jackson added. “The Browns wouldn’t consider moving Garrett in the offseason, even after he publicly paraded his trade demand, and the dead money on the salary cap involved with a trade now that Garrett signed a mega-extension with more than $122M in guaranteed money makes a deal nearly impossible to pull off.”