INDIANAPOLIS — Let’s gather around the NFL Scouting Combine bonfire, pour some hot chocolate and locate a chair so we can have an uncomfortable conversation about the state of the Cleveland Browns.
It feels like Myles Garrett’s trade request was more like a demand. And given Cleveland’s roster, salary cap and other assorted shrapnel from a season of high expectations in 2024 turning into a 3-14 disaster, it also feels like the Browns might have to embrace a total rebuild.
Yep, I went ahead and said it. Or wrote it. “Rebuild.”
You can say it, too. It doesn’t hurt — at least not any more than punting on three seasons worth of first-round picks and generally wasting the primes of some gifted players. The Browns made a series of financial and roster decisions with the idea that Deshaun Watson would be their quarterback for a long time. Instead, they got 19 mostly forgettable games from Watson over three seasons.
So now they need to restructure his contract again just to become salary-cap compliant, and they need to add two quarterbacks in addition to needing a left tackle, wide receiver, at least one defensive lineman, one linebacker, one running back and potentially a starting guard. That’s not the full list, and they’re not the only team with roster needs at this time of year, but the overall outlook is cloudy at best.
Per Over the Cap, Cleveland will go from almost $24 million in the red to around $13 million in available cap space with the upcoming Watson restructure.
I understand not wanting to use the word “rebuild.” I understand why general manager Andrew Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski would publicly resist it — mostly, they’d presumably like to keep their jobs — and I understand why Browns fans who remember the historically bad 4-44 run from 2015 to 2017 don’t want to wrap their arms around it.
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Maybe this isn’t a total rebuild. Just by getting semi-competent quarterback play and cutting down on turnovers, the Browns could help their defense and instantly improve their overall operation. Maybe there’s not even a such thing as a rebuild in an uber-competitive, ever-changing league. Cleveland certainly could change both perceptions and results by drafting the right quarterback in April, and the message from Berry and Stefanski in Indianapolis this week has been unsurprisingly firm when it comes to Garrett.
The Browns say they’re not trading him, and Berry called the amount of interest in Garrett “irrelevant” because they aren’t interested in such discussions.
Three years ago at this same event, Berry affirmed the team’s commitment to Baker Mayfield. Public negotiating is part of any kind of staredown, and what’s said in front of microphones in February isn’t always what’s expressed in private meetings as the start of the new league year draws nearer.
I fully believe the Browns don’t want to trade Garrett, and I understand why they wouldn’t want to. But I also believe they have to listen and prepare themselves for the possibility that Garrett simply won’t budge and eventually could make things ugly — yes, that’s a relative term for the Browns — in the months ahead.
Trading Garrett would be an acknowledgment that this mess does require a total rebuild. He’s been picking his words carefully since he first threatened to ask for a trade in December, and he followed the Feb. 3 announcement of his intentions with a full media tour in which he said he respects Berry and the Browns but doesn’t believe the team is positioned to win.
Wherever you are on the scale of what an NFL rebuild entails and how close (or far) the Browns are to returning to respectability, you must acknowledge that nobody has argued with Garrett’s assessment of the team, its missteps and its current direction.
Myles Garrett, the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year, publicly requested a trade from Cleveland in early February. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
Unsurprisingly, Berry and Stefanski were asked here — repeatedly — if Cleveland believes it can convince Garrett to change his mind and if the relationship and overall trajectory of the team can be properly repaired. Also unsurprisingly, neither offered an answer that was either direct or convincing.
“As you know, I think the world of Myles,” Stefanski said. “I understand the business of football and I understand these things happen from time to time, but I expect Myles on our team this year, next year, the year after that and so on. He’s part of the present (and) he’s part of the future.”
Berry also said that trade requests happen “all the time,” and that he understands and shares Garrett’s frustration. In a separate interview with ESPN, Berry called Garrett “unmovable” and said Cleveland wouldn’t be trading him: “It’s as simple as that.”
The problem is there are many problems for the Browns to address. Garrett has highlighted them in a more convincing way than your friendly neighborhood columnist pictured above or the unflattering release of the NFL Players Association’s annual report card in which Stefanski was the league’s lowest-graded returning coach.
Late last season, Garrett called 2024 more disappointing than his rookie year in 2017, when the Browns didn’t win a single game. What followed that year was a rebuild: an aggressive one that included a highly drafted quarterback and multiple trades designed to change the locker room culture and upgrade the roster. It worked — to an extent and not via a straight line — and eventually the Browns moved past perennial doormat status.
The way things have gone since 2022, though, reminds us that Stefanski is yet to make it fully work with any quarterback and that Berry’s drafting has been shaky at best. As the roster has aged, that’s become more of a problem.
If fixing things in one offseason was easy, well, everybody would do it. And if most fans trusted this regime to get the next set of moves right, these conversations and the ensuing arguments wouldn’t be so awkward. Also, Garrett wouldn’t be saying he’s ready to go to a team that’s ready to win.
Assuming the Browns can convince Garrett to rethink this, can attract (or trade for) the right quarterback, extend Berry’s streak of trading third-day draft picks for a productive veteran, and use both the draft and cheaper tiers of free agency to find immediate help for the 2025 team — and long-term pieces around which the folks in charge and a rookie quarterback can build and grow — then all of this rebuild talk will either sound silly or Berry will have earned long-term job security. Or both.
But that’s a long list, external confidence is low and the AFC is stacked with true franchise quarterbacks. The 2024 Browns weren’t well-coached or well-built, and now — in addition to Garrett wanting out — five-time All-Pro guard Joel Bitonio is considering retirement and Pro Bowl linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah’s status is uncertain due to a neck injury he suffered in October.
If the Browns were just desperate for a quarterback, you could see the proper choice(s) putting them back on the right track quickly. But they have major needs on both lines, too, immediately and looking ahead. And with players such as Bitonio, Wyatt Teller, Ethan Pocic and David Njoku only signed through 2025, the roughly $130 million to which the Browns will still be committed to Watson after 2025 looms large.
The clearest takeaway from here, where the focus should be on the quarterback search, is that the Browns must get Garrett to change his mind. Maybe they can and maybe they can’t. They’re certainly trying.
“I wouldn’t get into specifics (of those conversations),” Berry said. “But again, our focus is on building the team and again, Myles is going to be a big part of that.”
Combine season is supposed to be optimism season. But right now, it’s fair to wonder if the Browns should just start to fully focus on what looks like a long-term rebuild.
(Top photo of Andrew Berry: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
