Lengthy report addresses narratives about Browns trading Myles Garrett to Rams

It was recently suggested that one reason defensive superstar Myles Garrett will enter the first weekend of June as a Los Angeles Rams player is that he wanted to leave the Cleveland Browns after the Browns hired Todd Monken instead of then-Cleveland defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz as their new head coach. 

For a lengthy piece published on Friday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated suggested that Garrett was willing to stay with the Browns through at least the start of the 2026 season. 

Browns, Myles Garrett were both "full speed ahead" before trade to Rams?

"[Garrett's] meeting at the end of the 2025 season with [Browns general manager Andrew Berry], as it is every year, dove into the team’s plans for the year ahead," Breer wrote. "In it, Berry laid out what free agency and the draft would look like, how the Browns planned to address their holes, and, this year, how they’d attack their coaching search. This year, unlike last year, when Garrett asked to be traded, it was full speed ahead for both the team and its star player." 

Shortly after Garrett asked to be traded in early 2025, he signed a four-year, $160M contract extension that included $123.5M guaranteed and a no-trade clause to stay with the Browns. That said, eyebrows were raised when Monken revealed shortly before Memorial Day that he hadn't yet spoken in person with Garrett since being hired this past winter. 

According to Breer, Garrett "was overseas vacationing with his girlfriend, Olympian Chloe Kim, in Japan and Korea until May 26, the day after Memorial Day, with plans to do a one-day stopover, coincidentally, in Los Angeles, before returning home to Dallas, where he’d train for a bit before joining back up with his teammates in Cleveland." 

Thus, it sounds like Garrett truly did plan to report to the Browns before the start of their mandatory minicamp on June 9. 

Why Andrew Berry was satisfied with what Rams offered for Myles Garrett

Breer noted that Berry wanted "a young star at a premium position on a cost-controlled contract" and "premium draft capital coming with the player" included in a package for Garrett. In the end, the Browns acquired a 2027 first-round draft pick, a 2028 second-round selection, a 2029 third-round choice and 2024 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse for Garrett's services. 

Interestingly, Breer added that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam hosted Garrett at his Northeast Ohio residence after it became clear the two-time Defensive Player of the Year would be traded. 

"There," Breer explained, "the Haslams, Berry and Garrett reminisced and traded stories, and the Browns’ owner fired off some of his trademark, Southern-spun one-liners. Over the hour or so they spent, they talked about L.A. and Cleveland, and the main thing, for the Browns’ folks, was making sure that their final time together would be left the right way."

In short, it seems the breakup involving the Browns and Garrett was about as amicable as one could be. It also appears that those running the Browns feel the team's long-term answer at quarterback isn't on the roster this spring.