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The Cleveland Browns could get a massive trade haul for Myles Garrett.
The Buffalo Bills won’t be pulling off a blockbuster trade for Myles Garrett after all.
The Cleveland Browns this week restructured the contract of their star edge rusher, sparking immediate speculation that he could be hitting the trade block. But an NFL insider quashed the rumors quickly, ending speculation that the Browns are looking to deal Garrett and ending the slim hopes the Bills may have had to land him.
Myles Garrett Trade Rumors Fade Quickly
The Browns sparked the trade speculation when they changed some due dates on Garrett’s contract, giving him a bonus earlier and opening the potential for a trade. As Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap reported, the move seemed to be aimed at allowing Cleveland to explore trade possibilities.
“The Browns don’t gain any cap room by making this move unless they actually changed the option amounts this year,” Fitzgerald wrote. “They already had the lowest cap charge possible for Garrett, outside of converting some per game bonuses to a signing bonus. All this does is give the team the maximum flexibility to trade Garrett assuming they were to get him to waive a his no trade clause. I guess there is also the soft factor of having everyone on the team have a similar exercise date.”
Appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show,” ESPN insider Adam Schefter reported that the Browns have no intentions to trade Garrett. Schefter said he spoke to the Browns, and they are “100 percent definitely not trading.”
Bills Seen as Landing Spot for Myles Garrett
In the hours after Cleveland’s decision was announced and before Schefter’s clarification, many insiders pointed to the Bills as a logical destination. SI.com’s Conor Orr wrote that landing Garrett would put an exclamation point on the team’s new season and new coaching staff.
“Opening a new stadium has a way of forcing a team to punch the accelerator,” Orr wrote. “While Bills fans seemingly need no incentive to support the franchise and have been surviving on heartbreak and provisions stored in the bitter cold snowfall permanently located in their backyards, a Garrett trade could be both a major gift to new head coach Joe Brady and defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, and a way to ensure that neither tank during their first season, making the impulsive firing of Sean McDermott look ridiculous after McDermott turned the program around.”
Orr added that the Bills appear especially motivated to improve their pass rush, and acquiring Garrett would have been an all-in move.
“The Bills already moved on Bradley Chubb this offseason, but have been perpetually trying to solve their pass-rushing issues via the veteran market due to late draft picks year after year,” Orr wrote.
Nathan Dougherty is a sports reporter covering the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins. Previously he wrote for the Rochester Business Journal and served as the assistant editor of athletic trade magazines Coaching Management, Athletic Management and Training & Conditioning. He is based out of Rochester, New York, and loves everything football. More about Nathan Dougherty
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