Hogs Haven
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Garrett has already been on a significant deal for several years, and Cleveland shouldn’t have many arguments against giving a player with his résumé a new contract. General manager Andrew Berry has said the Browns have no intention of trading Garrett, but what teams say publicly and end up doing are often two different things.
There’s enough smoke here to do a deeper dive. If the Browns are really willing to trade Garrett, what would a fair price even look like? And which teams should be interested?
[O]n the Jimmy Johnson chart, the trade value [for Garrett is about] 1,204 points. That would be equivalent to the 12th pick in a typical draft.
I can see an argument for the Browns wanting more. Garrett plays the second-most important position in the game after quarterback. He has four first-team All-Pro nods, placing him one ahead of these other players who were dealt before 30. He has won Defensive Player of the Year. And while he has been aided by a 17th game, he has racked up 12 sacks in each of the past five seasons. He’s the first player in NFL history to produce six 12-plus sack seasons before turning 30.
At the same time, Garrett is going to turn 30 next December, and the league has grown much warier of players as they age out of their prime seasons. Any team trading for him is going to be handing him a contract with significant amounts of guaranteed money into his early 30s. Garrett is unlikely to suddenly turn into a pumpkin just because he hits 30, but he has already played eight years in the league. We’ve seen players in this age range get traded for much less than their talents would suggest
If a team’s offering a top-10 pick in the 2025 draft, it might not need to offer much else. If it’s the Eagles sending the No. 32 pick, there would need to be something more substantial as a second asset going Cleveland’s way, especially given that their future picks in 2026 and 2027 are also likely to fall toward the bottom of rounds.
These are other teams that should be interested in a Garrett deal and have one key advantage over the organizations I mentioned above: a cheap quarterback. It’s easier for teams with quarterbacks on rookie deals that are hoping to compete to go after him, given that they’re paying their starting signal-callers about $40 million to $50 million less than the going rate for veteran passers. That’s a lot of salary to spread elsewhere around the roster.
Washington Commanders. The Commanders are the most obvious and consequential landing spot for Garrett. They have the...
