After seven seasons with the Cleveland Browns, which yielded just two playoff appearances and 53 wins (25th in the NFL over that span), star edge rusher Myles Garrett requested a trade in February. His reasoning? A “desire to win” that he felt would not be satisfied in Cleveland. However, a new record-setting four-year, $160 million deal was enough to put those concerns to rest.
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Winning, shminning, right? In the meantime, Garrett can do his best Scrooge McDuck impression, thanks to that new deal. By average annual value, it was the biggest non-QB contract in NFL history at $40 million per year. He has since been surpassed by Ja’Marr Chase’s extension, but he remains the highest-paid defensive player. He also has just over $123.5 million in total guaranteed money—the most among non-QBs.
As expected, with all that scratch comes a new level of responsibility for the eight-year veteran. He can’t just be Cleveland’s best player anymore, he needs to be a team leader as well. Whether he does that by being vocal or by example is up to him, but he needs to evolve. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam addressed this in a recent interview with Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.
“What we’ve challenged Myles on is, by his practice habits, by his actions, etcetera, to become a real leader of the team. And he has said he’d do that, and we’re hopeful that he will be,” Haslam said.
If you’re wondering why this sounds like Haslam giving Garrett a bit of a kick in the pants, it’s because it is. Garrett has never been anything short of professional and productive on the field. However, his habits outside of game day haven’t always been exemplary.
Jason Lloyd of The Athletic reported back in March that it is apparently the worst-kept secret around the organization, “that Garrett is frequently late to the facility. He has skipped mandatory team activities on multiple occasions.” Not exactly the behavior you want from your highest-paid player.
As users on Reddit pointed out, Haslam and the front office clearly just “want Garrett to be more of a ‘professional,’ and saying ‘leader’ is just sugar coating what they actually want.”
Others weren’t so understanding, however. One Redditor sarcastically noted the shortsightedness of signing Garrett to such a mega-deal considering those bad habits,
“Pretty cool to pay him ‘highest paid non-QB, ever’-type money and then hope he kind of maybe settles into being a leader (or whatever) for the team he held hostage for a few weeks.”
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Others didn’t quite want Garrett to be a leader. “Every guy isn’t a leader. This has been known about Myles for a while now. As long as he doesn’t skip practices and doesn’t flip [his] Porsche, I’d be happy,” they wrote.
Another chimed in, “Trey Hendrickson has never been team captain for the Bengals despite being our best defensive player and no one seems to mind at all.”
Despite the tardiness, unexcused absences, and trade request, Myles Garrett still seems to be well-liked around the facility. It helps when you’re a future Hall of Fame talent—just as Haslam recently described his prized edge rusher.
“We had a lot of conversations about it, and there was never serious thought to trade Myles. What we know we have in Myles is a Hall of Famer… These kind of situations are emotional. People say things, and you have to realize it’s not just the player. There’s an agent. There’s an agency who are working that process behind the scenes, and they’re really good at it. They’re really effective at it. And we’re just glad it worked out.”
Jimmy Haslam has been wrong about a lot of things as the owner of the Browns (Deshaun Watson, please stand up), but Myles Garrett was not one of them. Neither was his HOF prediction.
Garrett has the fourth-most sacks (102.5) and the seventh-most TFLs (112) in NFL history through a player’s age-29 season. He has also earned six Pro Bowls, four First-Team All-Pro selections, and the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.
