DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Myles Garrett Requests Trade

As usual, I find myself nodding my head in agreement when I read your posts...although it pains me to read you being not uber-optimistic. So many things have to fall in line and/or be great decisions for '25 in order for us to be a competitive team.

I don't see how even-average QB play makes this team competitive for the playoffs. Even if so, said average QB is not on the team right now and was not an average QB in '24. I have no confidence that this team knows how to identity a playoff-caliber QB. This is the first - and most-important - of many things that have to fall juuuuuust right for us.

The OL is either old or banged-up or not good...or all (3). The team needs to get this room shored up and without spending a ton of money...where spending like drunken sailors is the only thing they do consistently well. We are likely going back to what worked in '23...without the architect of that scheme who could make chicken salad out of chicken #$&^. I'd say we have (2) skilled players offensively that are worth keeping/worrying-about...(3) if you add super-human Chubb.

Our best defensive player wants out...our 2nd best DL is expensive and not-young...our 3rd best DL will be coming off an injury and has proven to be quite volatile off the field. No one else is worth worrying about.

Our best LB may never play again...our 2nd best is old and missed a lot with injury last year...our 3rd best is a UDFA. No one else is worth worrying about.

We have one very good but injury-prone DB...a good SS...No one else is worth worrying about.

Our long snapper missed the season with injury and our Kicker has the yips.

I just don't see a world where this team gets ALL of those things figured out while dealing with the cap and what to do with it's top player...maybe even top two players...whose ouster would destroy the cap.

Sometimes you just have to rip off the bandaid...the sad thing is that the cut that required the bandaid was self-inflicted...by the very same people charged with accomplishing that ^ feat.

Yep. And trading Myles effectively forces the Browns into the necessary rebuild rather than delaying the inevitable. Maximize the value in trade you can get for Myles and begin the healing process. The colossal failure of the Watson trade has sunk this franchise for the immediate future, don’t make it worse by pretending that you’re in some sort of competitive window. The team is not a real competitor and it’s really not close.

I can imagine that in the back of Berry’s mind he knows that when Myles is ultimately traded, it will be the end of his time as GM of the Browns and someone else will be making the picks in 2026 and beyond. I assume this will be Stefanski’s last year as well. A lost season is very likely upcoming.

As always, there is drama in Berea.

Interesting that now people are calling for Berry's head and a lighter point Stefanski's. There are a few of us on this forum that warned about the Watson trade because of his off the field activities and quitting on his former team. Some of us have been screaming for years that Berry was putting the club in a financial mess and that the team was aging. I remember getting blasted on this forum when I gave my opinion that Berry exercising Wills 5th-year option was a huge mistake and signing Njoku to his mega million deal was to put it lightly an overreach.

Now here we are waiting for the start of the 2025 league start. The Browns are in cap hell because of the way Berry restructured nearly every players contracts. The Browns have no QB. The Browns have an OL that must be totally replaced between this year and next. Wills, Conklin, Bitonio, Teller, and Pocic cannot be a part of the Browns future. Dead Cap Money coming out the wazzo and going to get worse. The Browns have no viable RB and resigning Chubb considering the OL woes, no QB, and previous injuries is more than a risk. Jeudy overperformed and Njoku underperformed - AGAIN. The Browns have no clear cut WR2 and WR3 is open. All the Browns offensive backups carry huge question marks. That's just the offensive side of the ball. This is all Berry, he's the GM and he's the roster builder. Think I'm wrong, name me one offensive backup from last year that you're 100% confident that they can move in and hold that position for the next 5-years? Except for maybe OT Jones, every other one has question marks including Jones.

The bottom-line is as owner, Haslam has made 3 grave decisions the last 3-years: 1) Agreeing with Berry and Stefanski to dump Mayfield and thus pursue Watson. 2) Giving Berry and Stefanski contract extensions. 3) Not firing them both (Stefanski & Berry) at this season end after posting a 5-year losing record (41-46), having the highest average cap spend in the NFL the last 2 seasons and scheduled to be equally as high in 2025, a poor or nonexistent player succession plan, and the cap hell the team is in currently.

Anyone, including Haslam, that thinks Berry and Stefanski is going to turn-around this team in either 2025 or 2026 is living in a dream world. Their history says quite the contrary. Not with the number of players they must replace as starters and quality backups the next 3-years. It's going to take more than paying the league minimums for half the team to set up a decent succession plan for this team in the future. Berry has already demonstrated that he has no idea how to set this up. You need to look no further than the QB position in 2023, WR, LT, and RB says it all.

Fire them both now before they make it worse, if that's possible

Come on man. You don't think the players knew when Stefanski pulled Winston to start DTR and Zappe the Browns hadn't decided to phone it in?

Now Myles wants to leave. I believe the only one you're fooling here is yourself.

Honestly, I think Chubb's knee getting wrecked was almost as big of an issue as Watson. It changed a lot. Made things harder for everybody on offense. It kind of gets lost in the mix for some reason.

...Steelers, ugh. Always kicking Browns fans where it hurts.

It was simply giving you an example as to how it impacts players when you put forth the loser mentality. They know when you're playing to lose. They know it by how you address the roster. How hard you try to acquire players that give you the best chance to win. Top players and those with that competitive fire within them want nothing to do with that BS. All you're left with are players that are playing only for a paycheck and could care less about anything else. You know, an entire roster of Watson's.

Not saying that injuries don't have an effect. However, championship caliber teams adjust. Kansas City lost their WR1 Rice for the season on Sept 29th. WR2 Hollywood Brown missed 14 weeks of regular season. WR3 Sky Moore has missed 13 straight weeks, WR4 Hardman has missed 6 weeks, K Butker missed 4 weeks, DE Humphries missed 3 weeks, RB1 Pacheco has missed 10 weeks, and many more. Though it's true the Browns had more injuries, is it 12 regular season wins, the playoffs, and a Super Bowl worse? That is also what I stated above, where's Berry's succession planning and why of such poor quality? KCC like every other team goes through off season loss of players but they replace them either through succession planning or FA. When are we going to hold Berry accountable for this mess?

Funny, Haslam thinks leaving Berry and to a lesser degree Stefanski in place after 5-years will produce different results - LOL!

The one person that didn't miss a bunch of games in KC? The QB. Go figure. When the most important position stays healthy (and they have the best player at that position), teams see better results.

If Mahomes gets hurt, how great are the Chiefs? If Josh Allen gets hurt, how great are the Bills? If Lamar gets hurt....

A backup is never going to replace those guys. Tread water for a bit, perhaps, but losing the field general is generally pretty catastrophic. With a good enough running game, sometimes a team can lean on that.

Watson was supposed to be "that guy" for us. Unfortunately, He can't stay healthy, physically or mentally. The team has then failed catastrophically as should have been expected when the QB isn't there. And the running game was also a shell without a healthy Chubb.

Yet, every team is more or less in that position. Your "star" QB gets hurt, the season(s) goes down the tube. How'd Miami do without Tua?

How do you plan for multiple repeated injuries to multiple players at the most important position? Having great backups sounds great. No team really does at QB.

When you don't have a QB, and "overpay" to get one (b/c you won't get one otherwise,) and he gets hurt, it's not a good place to be. I do wonder how much Baker's health at the time played into the decision. Was it a Drew Brees (med staff failed the shoulder) situation?

The Browns have had awful QB injury "luck." Just lots of unfortunate injuries (worst possible, or near to) in general.

You don't just replace Nick Chubb. Stop with this nonsense. Even if you have a backup plan, there's going to be a drop off.

The backhanded Chubb slander is ridiculous.

It was devastating because he's Nick Chubb.

Surely you are not trying to say that Watson is anywhere near being in the same league of Mahomes, Allen, Jackson, Goff or any number of others in the league including Mayfield. Watson may have gotten injured yet when he did play, he sucked wind compared to expectations. He didn't play a complete above average game in any game he started. I would even go as far as to say Winston was a better starter last year, as was Flacco the previous year and Brissett the 1st year. Using Watson as an excuse because he got injured is just an excuse with nothing to support it. Truthfully, the games Watson played in could be considered not playing the top-quality QB on the roster. That all goes back to Berry and Stefanski. Anyway, trying to say the Browns loss of Watson had the same effect on the Browns as those other teams losing their QB is a joke that's not really funny.

From my perspective some of it involves lack of discipline and a weak leadership.

Baker indirectly got hurt because he tried to over compensate when he made a bad throw.
That’s lack of discipline.

OBJ was a freestyler who used his instinct and talent more than being a team player.
(McVay was probably one of the few who could handle him for a short period of time)
Lack of discipline.

Watson was already damaged goods when he arrived in Cleveland but the lack of leadership and discipline probably made it worse.
Following points is hard to prove but from the outside he didn’t look fully prepared. Not fully focused. Not totally integrated in the team and didn’t seem to fully embrace living in the northern part of the states.

All above isn’t only the players fault.

Some young men need grown up support, guidance and mentorship.
Then you have those with character flaws or cocky attitude who often need some tough love to land on their feet’s.

Not everyone is lucky enough to be born with caring parents, a wise mentor or a safe social net.

Finally, someone speaking sense! Thanks, Ballpeen!

I'll add one thing: Berry should draft a running quarterback in this draft. The Browns must stop chasing this glorified rare pocket passer and draft Milroe and/or Gabriel. No, they are not the prize everyone wants! These are run-heavy quarterbacks who can move this offense forward.

There isn't a defense in this league that stops the run game so overload the offense with it.

Keep adding talent on defense, especially DBs. If/when Garrett leaves, at least there is a strong presence in the secondary on this defense.

Eventually, a quarterback will come. Until then, build a superpower run game and an elite defense.

All of this is under the assumption that all our best players stay and that Andrew Berry find 4-5 players from the combine that's good enough to start from W1.
If you look at Berry's record from the last five seasons this scenario is highly unlikely.

It depends on how you look at it. If you're a biased hater who has been rooting for his failure, you see it one way. If you objectively look at his career before he got here, he was definitely more highly thought of than Goff and Baker.

Watson was near that level of top guys. Unfortunately, his psyche got smashed before he played a down for us. They effectively lost him before he ever played a down. The two times ('23 Titans/'24 Bengals) he started to play great again he ended up getting physically injured. Unfortunately it appears he is a "rhythm" player and every time he's about to get back in the groove he's had a catastrophic injury. Throw in "fans" cheering those injuries and it's no wonder he's a broken mess. When those who are supposed to be your biggest supporters are those tearing you apart, it's not a good place to be.

Yay, "you" helped him fail. But that's what a lot of "fans" wanted. They wanted him gone before he suited up.

How is it you expect someone to manage a QB who made it clear he didn't want to come here in the first place and used his trade refusal clause in his contract to take the Browns off his list? Until of course they backed the backed the brinks truck up for him. You can't MAKE somebody want to be here.

So in this fantasy you have created poor watson is the victim and the fans are the perpetrators? I will say that you are quite creative.

You are right that we have no real answers at this point. Those questions are all left to be answered. Going into this entire process the biggest question in my mind is do I trust this FO and owner to solve those issues. The answer I come up with every time is no.

Yes, I know I don't have any say in that. I know that I have zero say about who is in charge. But there are several questions we have no answer for at this time. This is one question, at least for me that I do have an answer for.

Obviously, everything is black and white, one sided, simplistic, and Watson is the devil incarnate.

Or I simply pointed out that fan behavior didn't help the situation. It likely helped push Myles towards his decision to request a trade. Unfortunately, the actions/behaviors of fans actually do have effects on players/franchises.

Hmm, Myles for Micah?

Myles made it clear that his decision was based on hearing what this organizations plans were moving forward. His decision was a clear vote of no confidence. Blaming the fans for that is a great lesson in the art of creative writing.

Of course maybe as you suggest Garrett is too stupid to understand that after what the fans have seen on the field they have every right to be upset. But I highly doubt that. And sometimes people try to over complicate things that are pretty clear to create a situation that simply doesn't exist.

I’m with you 100%.


All the information was available to our FO, coaches and the owner before the trade and still they decided to continue despite all the warning signs..
I simply can’t understand why. These are well educated men with loads of knowledge between them.

I fully understand that Jimmy, Andrew and Kevin wasn’t on the same page when it come to discipline and leadership.
You just can’t give an individual with character issues a carte blanche by giving him guaranteed money.
Stefanski was put in hand cuffs from the first second when they took all his tools away from him.

In hindsight the Browns leadership did everything possible to make this trade to be a failure.
Absolutely astonishing.

How about an even-up trade for JJ McCarthy? Don't see that happening though...

I think what you posted is BS. I can't actually stop you, but I have just as much right to say that I disagree with you as you do to post.

You don't just replace an irreplaceable player. I don't care what the backup plan was, it was never going to be as good as Chubb. There's a reason they are backup plans.

Unfortunately, Ford isn't Chubb and couldn't overcome lousy blocking from banged up and backup lineman. He actually graded pretty well, but he couldn't do what Chubb could and make bad blocking not matter at times.

There is no plan that can survive every important player (nearly straight up every starter) on offense dealing with injury.

One injury can be overcome. Two injuries? Maybe. No top QB, No top RB, TE banged up all season, top WR traded because age/injury apparently caught up with him then Tilman gets his brain scrambled, top tackles miss all off-season and eventually we have a 5th stringer starting.

You can have a plan for every one of those individually, but all together those plans can't tape together a bridge that's lost it's cornerstones.

The clearer you claim things are, the more I doubt them. Things are never as simple as you try to make them.

Myles PR people put together a statement that would get "fans" to pressure a team to give him what he and his agent want. Saying the fans are the reason he wants to leave would lead spiteful fanatics to tell him to suck eggs. Why do that when he can use public opinion to apply pressure in an attempt to get out?

Nice BS make believe strawman argument. Myles isn't stupid, and the attempt to put those words in my mouth is typical of the voice in your head.

Fans have every right to be upset. Where and how they direct that upset matters.

"After speaking with management at the Browns...I don't feel like our future is aligned with winning right now."

Even though it is not in Berry's personal best interest for his career, I hope he eventually does the right thing and trades Myles so the rebuild can begin as soon as possible. If not, I'd hope ownership steps and forces the issue.

Just do not screw this up like I am expecting them to somehow do.

Who asks for additional draft picks in that scenario?
Us or the Vikings

Thanks, LeBron.

jc...it seems like Myles problem with the front office dates back a bit further than we realize. I found this bit of news about Myles frustration with the Browns management dates back to 2021 when Mayfield suffered a serious shoulder injury.

Below is a link to the entire story and just some of important points that I've quoted...




According to the story, Myles and others in the locker room were upset that Stafanski did not step in and shut Mayfield down and allow him to get the medical treatment he needed. It was not Mayfield's responsibility to make the decision...it was Stefanski's responsibility to bench Mayfield and start Keenum.

It is likely that Stefanski was taking orders from upper management to allow Mayfield to continue to play. Regardless, that decision did not set well with Myles and many in the locker room.

The story being fed to the media was that it was Mayfield's call to play while injured..but the locker room did not see it that way.

I'm not the one who made it clear. He was.


More creative writing from an imaginative mind.


So you are accusing Garrett, who has given no just cause for anyone to question his character a liar. The depths you will go to in order to justify your vivid imagination know no bounds.

According to Bull that's not the real story and Garrett is a liar.

Honestly, if Myles wants to go on the I wanna get traded tour-i guess that is his choice to drum up interest.
If I was Cleveland FO, unless I can get something that knocks my socks off, like 2 #1's and 2 #2's or more, he isn't going anywhere-
And if I was going to trade him, there is no chance I trade him to a top 10 team or anyone in the division-trade him to another dumpster fire and let him whine to them.
as bad as this year was, we have been to the playoffs twice in the last 5 years.