The Cleveland Browns shocked the NFL world when they agreed to trade Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams, and the official version of events has been that the organization simply could not pass up the return they received. But one Browns insider is not buying that.
Tony Grossi is raising a question that a lot of Browns fans have quietly been thinking about since the deal went down.
“Nobody will ever convince me that Klutch Sports didn’t work behind the scenes to facilitate a trade of Myles Garrett to the Rams. You simply don’t trade a generational player for … Jared Verse … without a threat of Garrett holding out. … And I’m in favor of the move,” Grossi wrote.
Nobody will ever convince me that Klutch Sports didn't work behind the scenes to facilitate a trade of Myles Garrett to the Rams. You simply don't trade a generational player for … Jared Verse … without a threat of Garrett holding out. … And I'm in favor of the move.
— Tony Grossi (@TonyGrossi) June 3, 2026
He is not saying this happened with certainty, but he is saying he will never be persuaded that Klutch Sports played no role in making this trade a reality. For a player of Garrett’s caliber to be moved for a package headlined by Verse, something had to push the Browns off their long-standing position.
And that position was rock solid for a long time. Andrew Berry was about as firm as a general manager can be when it came to Garrett’s availability on the trade market. No matter what offers circulated, the answer from Cleveland was always the same. Garrett was not going anywhere.
Then came the contract adjustment, and that changed everything. When a player of Garrett’s stature receives a strange contract restructure, that is typically the first visible sign that something is moving beneath the surface. It was the kind of quiet signal that those paying close attention recognized immediately.
While nobody outside the building will ever know exactly what conversations took place, it is hard to dismiss the larger context here. Garrett publicly requested a trade before last season and took enormous backlash from Cleveland fans for doing so. Once he walked that request back, it would make complete sense that he and his representation would look for a quieter path to the same destination rather than go through that public fight a second time.
The Browns ultimately moved on from a player who, by all indications, no longer wanted to be here. That reality makes the return they received look a lot better in hindsight. Jared Verse is a young, ascending pass rusher on a cost-controlled deal, and Cleveland also added draft capital in the process.
In the end, this move looks like the right one for both sides.
NEXT: Insider Reveals What Losing Myles Garrett Means For Browns' Defense
