The Cleveland Browns couldn’t even make it past the Super Bowl before their entire offseason plan was completely thrown into the trash. Myles Garrett, still the best defensive lineman in the league, has requested a trade in defiance of GM Andrew Berry during the week of the Super Bowl.
Garrett’s request was allegedly motivated by a need to compete for championships, not posturing for a new contract. The Browns, the second-worst team in the league last season, are not positioned to win in 2025 or 2026 due to the limitations brought upon them by Deshaun Watson
Watson, who likely won’t play in the 2025 season due to his Achilles injury, has the Browns on the hook for multiple fully guaranteed seasons of Top-five quarterback pay at a time when Watson performed like someone who shouldn’t even be in the league.
The Browns are both unable to compete for wins and financially rigid due to the Watson contract preventing them from retaining top talent and signing free agents. Garrett knows the Browns aren’t set up to win, and the Watson contract can be looked at as one of the main reasons for this.
Browns’ Deshuaun Watson contract may have led to Myles Garrett trade request
The Browns will need to somehow figure out a way to build a competitive team with no starting quarterback when over one-third of their schedule is against the Lamar Jackson-led Ravens, Joe Burrow’s Bengals, and the always compet itive Steelers. That is so improbable it borders on impossible
The Browns will need to somehow figure out a way to build a competitive team with no starting quarterback when over one-third of their schedule is against the Lamar Jackson-led Ravens, Joe Burrow’s Bengals, and the always competitive Steelers. That is so improbable it borders on impossible.
The Watson contract prompted the Browns to get rid of Amari Cooper, likely prevents them from chasing top veteran free agent quarterback Sam Darnold, and puts the Browns in a spot where they would need to shed payroll on top of the Garrett trade request. To put it mildly, this contract ruined both Garrett and Nick Chubb’s prime seasons.
While the Browns would not have been good with Garrett, and trading him could help them get a leg up in trying to rebuild this roster, losing one of the best players to ever put on that orange helmet because one contract knee-capped an entire franchise so badly that the rest of the fine trimmings have to be burned to cinders is a brutal way for this whole thing to go down
