The good news is the cash-strapped Cleveland Browns may have finally stumbled into future salary cap space and valuable NFL Draft assets. With one big deal, they can recoup some of the value lost by trading three first round picks for Deshaun Watson, who had been accused of more than 20 counts of sexual misconduct and what and NFL investigation called "predatory behavior" in his time as a Houston Texan, then giving him $230 million fully guaranteed to be the league's 48th-best quarterback.

The bad news is it will cost them one of the greatest players in franchise history.

Myles Garrett, the six-time All-Pro who has racked up more than 100 sacks in eight seasons in northeast Ohio, came to a logical conclusion Monday morning. He no longer wants to be a Cleveland Brown.

Garrett's trade request was simultaneously surprising and not. Joe Thomas toiled in vain in Cleveland, matching Garrett's perennial All-Pro status without missing a snap his first decade in the league. The Browns rewarded his loyalty with big contracts and zero playoff appearances. The final season of Thomas's Hall of Fame career was an 0-16 one. The physics-defying pass rusher understood he could share a similar fate.

Cleveland has been better with Garrett, but not good outside of a few isolated incidents. The Browns are 53-78-1 with him on the roster. Their lone playoff win came with Baker Mayfield behind center, who backslid the year after and was promptly shown the door in order to acquire an extremely expensive quarterback who has been suspended for 11 games of his Cleveland career and injured for 21 more.

Watson isn't just a disaster; he's inescapable. The Browns cannot extricate themselves from the unprecedented contract extension he signed in 2022 before he even played a snap for the team. Releasing him in 2025 would accelerate up to $172 million in dead salary cap space into the team's spending sheet. In 2026 it could be as much as $99 million, per Over the Cap. The fertile trade market existed for him three years ago is now a dust bowl.

For that, Cleveland got an injury prone quarterback whose recent Achilles injury may keep him out of 2025 entirely. Incredibly, this could be a good thing. 49 quarterbacks have played at least 500 snaps since 2022. Watson's -0.118 expected points added (EPA) per play ranks above only Zach Wilson in that group.

Watson's $72 million cap hit will take up an estimated 27 percent of the Browns salary cap space -- a spending limit they're already roughly $30 million over. There is no quick fix this offseason or next, where Cleveland is trending toward the league's worst cap situation. The only light at the end of the tunnel may be a rookie quarterback selected in a 2025 NFL Draft that's not nearly as loaded or top-heavy as last year's class -- a draft in which the Watson trade and Joe Flacco's unexpected late-season competence kept the Browns from picking inside the top 50.

Garrett understands his prospects. He's 29 years old. His prime may still last another four to five seasons. Toiling through a rebuild threatens to waste his remaining legacy-making years.

That's massively appealing to a cache of contenders who can rebuild their defense around someone who'll threaten to earn defensive player of the year votes until the heat death of the universe. Even better (for everyone else in the NFL and specifically not Cleveland); all the Browns' restructuring to create cap space around Watson's albatross contract means much of Garrett's remaining contract is signing bonus money his current team would be responsible for salary cap-wise.

Dan Pizzuta (@danpizzuta.bsky.social)

This suggests the Browns may have to keep digging toward rock bottom in 2025 as veterans get cut to accommodate Garrett's departure and Watson's stupid contract. Bedrock may create the foundation for something better. A freefalling Cleveland team would rise to the top of the 2026 NFL Draft loaded with draft assets -- not quite the Watson haul, but probably two first round picks and more in exchange for an All-Pro edge rusher.

To get there, they need to part ways with arguably the franchise's best player of the modern era. Dealing Garrett would help undo one of the worst trades in the history of American professional sports. It comes with the risk of writing another Browns chapter in that sad tome.

Cleveland took a big swing to land Watson, character issues (notably, more than 20 accusations of sexual misconduct and what the NFL called "predatory behavior') be damned. He was supposed to pair with Garrett to bring the Browns beyond the Divisional Round of the playoffs for the first time since 1989. Instead, he's been so bad and his contract so damaging the Browns may have no choice but to trade away Garrett in his prime just to undo some of the lingering effects of his deal.

This is what Cleveland sowed three years ago. Now their harvest threatens to blot out one of the few remaining bright spots on the Browns roster.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Browns finally broke Myles Garrett