Myles Garrett trade request: How did we end up here?

Well, this sucks. So many bombshells coming out of the sports world this week but Cleveland wasn’t immune from receiving one. Star defensive end Myles Garrett formally requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns, and of course, it was met with a ton of reactions.

We’ve covered the Garrett request in as many ways as possible so far:

• 5 teams that should call about Garrett immediately
• Betting odds for every team’s chances to trade for Garrett
• Should the Browns give in to his request?
• Trading Garrett is a simple, sobering decision
• Being a Browns fan is not fun or easy
• Contract, salary cap details if the Browns trade Garrett
• From the Super Bowl, Kareem Hunt discusses Garrett’s request
• WWE uses Garrett’s request to troll Cleveland crowd
• Did Garrett demand a trade after hearing the plan was a rebuild?
• Could trading for Cooper Kupp help keep Garrett?
• Finally, 2 trades, including Garrett, to reset the Browns roster

The reactions have been about what you would expect including from this author:

And those are just from folks who cover the team.

Despite Garrett going public with his trade request, the team has been adamant about not trying to trade him:

So the question everyone wants to know, how did we end up in this situation?

Myles wasn’t buying what Andrew was selling to him

General manager Andrew Berry was at the Senior Bowl and he was pretty adamant about not entertaining the idea of trading away Garrett. Things changed, obviously as Garrett put out the request but some can only speculate what led to this happening:

Could this be true? Maybe, maybe not but no one knows what the Browns are going to do this offseason and Garrett probably wanted to know so he can get a clear picture of where the franchise was going.

Apparently, he wasn’t thrilled with what he heard so he requested a trade privately before going public with the request. If you look over the statement, he put out it’s clear he wants to win and he obviously doesn’t trust the Browns front office to do that.

Lack of consistent winning and not having an answer at quarterback

Some might believe that Garrett has put out a trade request in order to get a new contract but apparently that’s not the case here:

Since Garrett has been in Cleveland, he’s only had two winning seasons leading to one playoff win. Considering where the Browns were, some will consider that to be progress. Others? Not so much.

When Cleveland made the postseason and won their wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020, some believed that the Browns were on a path to becoming serious Super Bowl contenders. That wasn’t the case.

It was a team entering uncharted territory due to the uncertainty at the quarterback position. To win a Super Bowl or get to one, Cleveland needed a franchise changer at the...