“First of all, I want to win. I want the Browns to be able to put me and us in position to win. I’m not trying to rebuild,” Garrett said, via Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot. “I’m trying to win right now. I want that to be apparent, when the season’s over and we have those discussions, I want them to be able to illuminate that for me, illustrate that for me, so that can be something that I can see in the near future.
“I’m going to stay loyal to a team that showed loyalty to me and faith in me by drafting me. But we have to do, at the end of the day, what’s best for us.”
This strategy has keyed numerous NBA exits, in a league in which the stars hold more power compared to the NFL. The league Garrett plays in features additional mechanisms, most notably the franchise tag, for teams to retain stars. As Deshaun Watson‘s struggles pushed that situation well past a crisis point ahead of the trade deadline, teams asked about Garrett. The Browns shot them down, viewing he and Denzel Ward as building blocks. But Garrett may be ready to force the issue soon.
“Absolutely,” Garrett said when asked if the Browns need to explain a QB plan. “As uncertain as it is now from the outside looking in, it’s uncertain for us as well. So if [Dorian Thompson-Robinson] is the solution or someone else is, it’s got to be drawn out. There’s got to be a plan of action and just got to know where things are going.”
Cleveland has Garrett under contract (at a below-market rate) for one more season. The team did well to sign the 2017 top pick to a five-year, $125M deal, giving seven years of control. Probably the best pass-rusher in Browns history, Garrett has outplayed that deal. Nick Bosa now leads the pack with a $34M-per-year deal, and 2025 will also bring Micah Parsons and T.J. Watt contract years. Although Garrett is also in line to cash in during a Browns contract year, doing so appears contingent on the team convincing its top player it can compete despite the Watson albatross.
The Browns have no way out of the Watson mess. No second suspension will clear any guarantees. It would cost the Browns more than $172M to release Watson in 2025, making it a non-starter. The team plans to keep the struggling quarterback as a result. Although Browns decision-makers are not saying Watson will be benched, signs point to a search for competition — at the very least — coming soon. The contract GM Andrew Berry authorized in 2022 will prevent an expensive QB search, but he does plan on going through with a third restructure to reduce Watson’s 2025 cap hit (currently a record-shattering $72.9M). This will make it harder for the Browns to dump Watson in 2026, but that appears the cost of doing business at this point.
