It’s rare when one of the best players in the NFL demands a trade. It’s even rarer when your team has a legitimate chance to trade for that player. That’s the situation with Myles Garrett and the Philadelphia Eagles.
On Feb. 3, the six-time All-Pro and former Defensive Player of the Year requested a trade from the Browns. He said that he wants to “win and compete,” which are two words that are the exact opposite of what the Cleveland Browns have been as a franchise over the past 30 years. As of Thursday, Mar. 6, DraftKings has the Eagles with the second-best odds for Garrett’s next team behind the Browns. That’s awesome.
Trading for Myles Garrett is mostly a good thing
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Myles Garrett is going to be cheap. He’s one of the best players in the NFL and deserves to be paid like one. Whichever team gets him is going to have to offer him an extension, and it’s going to be mega-expensive, especially since Maxx Crosby just got paid $35.5 million per year.
Paying a bunch of money to Myles Garrett is worth it because that means he is an Eagle, so that’s not going to be why it’d be bad to trade for him.
Con: It’ll muck up free agency and the draft
According to Over The Cap, if the Browns trade Myles Garrett before June 1, they will lose $16 million in salary cap space. If they trade him after June 1, they will gain $4.9 million in cap space. That means that, money-wise, it would be criminally irresponsible for the Browns to trade Garrett until June—unless the trade includes some kind of financial adjustment.
Garrett will cost at least a first-round draft pick, and the Eagles have the 32nd draft pick this season, which is essentially a second-round pick. So if there was a year to have to give up a first-rounder, this would be that year. It might cost the Eagles more money, but it sure feels like Howie Roseman values draft picks more than money.
All this means is that trade before or during the draft would be beneficial for the Eagles.
If the Browns putz around and wait until June, that means the Eagles would have to go through free agency and the draft with a big question mark on the depth chart. Not only does that mean potentially signing or drafting edge rushers who aren’t needed, but it also means not signing or drafting players who are needed.
It’d be a real kick in the nuts if the Eagles passed up on drafting Lane Johnson’s replacement or a good tight end with the 32nd pick to draft an edge rusher if Garrett is still out there for the taking.
The bottom line is that there is a specific situation where a trade for Myles Garrett happens later in the offseason, and it means the Eagles spend some money and draft picks at positions that aren’t really needed.
That’s really the only bad thing about a Myles Garrett trade, and it’s not really all that terrible. Are you going to complain about having too many players who can rush the passer? No, because you’re not an idiot.
Pro: Sacks and everything that comes with them
You can’t knock what Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham, and Jalyx Hunt did in 2024. They were the rotating edge rushers on the best defense in the entire league, and they were a huge part of shutting Patrick Mahomes down in the Super Bowl. But none of them are elite, game-wrecking, and day-ruining players.
In 2022, Haason Reddick was one of those players. He ended that season with 16 sacks, 26 quarterback hits, and a 17.6 percent pressure rate. He was awesome, and watching him be violent on third downs as he assaulted quarterbacks was awesome.
When a quarterback dropped back, the expectation was that he was going to get wrecked.
Last season, that pass-rushing excitement wasn’t there. When a quarterback dropped back, the expectation was that it was going to be incomplete.
I’m not knocking that. Playing with sound coverage is clearly amazing, and it can win Super Bowls… but having that edge rusher who can’t be stopped is a whole lot of fun.
Myles Garrett gives you that and more. In the past four seasons, he’s had at least 14 sacks and 26 quarterback hits, and he did that while getting all of the offensive line’s attention.
What would happen if Myles Garrett was able to get that level of attention, but the offensive line also had to keep three sets of eyes on Jalen Carter? There would be a million billion sacks, that’s what. It wouldn’t just be Garrett and Carter but also the players around and opposite of them.
Trading for Myles Garrett would make the Eagles’ defense a whole lot more fun to watch, and it’s already super fun to watch. It’d be like one of the new Godzilla movies, but then a Pacific Rim robot comes in to help. That would be awesome.
Pro: Two birds with one stone
If Vic Fangio likes a defensive lineman, he keeps them on the field. In 2023, Jalen Carter played 51.1 percent of the defensive snaps (534 total). Under Fangio in 2024, that number jumped to 89.3 percent (793).
The Eagles could lose two (hopefully three) edge rushers this offseason, with Josh Sweat entering free agency, Brandon Graham potentially retiring, and hopefully Bryce Huff in a trade. Sweat played 62.8 percent of the snaps (546), and B.G. played 45.6 percent (254). If both of those guys are gone, there is a huge number of snaps that need to be played by somebody.
Myles Garrett can be that somebody because he doesn’t need to leave the field. He played a career low in percentage of snaps last season, and it was still 75.8 percent (788). That’s wild.
He would take one of the edge rusher spots and make it a non-rotational position. That means the Eagles would have less stress about getting two productive edge rushers in the draft and free agency.
Getting a top-tier talent who can change games and who is always on the field easily (and irresponsibly) outweighs the whole ‘we might have too many edge rushers’ thing… and it outweighs it by kind of a lot.