The Cleveland Browns are coming off one of their worst years in recent memory and have a dark future ahead of them largely due to the untenable quarterback situation facing the franchise with Deshaun Watson’s $72.9 million cap hit and re-torn Achilles staring them in the face.
It has made fans feel hopeless, but one insider recently floated an interesting trade scenario that could get the Browns out of this mess and is so crazy it just might work.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio recently shared an article containing a wild trade idea that involves the Browns attaching Watson’s big contract with superstar defensive end Myles Garrett in one star-studded package.
“The message would go like this: “If you want Myles Garrett, you have to take Deshaun Watson. It would amount to an extra $92 million commitment, with the new team getting Garrett and owing Watson the balance of his five-year, $230 million, fully-guaranteed contract,” Florio said.
It’s an interesting thought that looks more like what you’d see from an MLB or NBA trade, where overpaid stars are often attached to younger players or draft picks just to entice another team to take them off their hands.
The other side of this argument is that Garrett represents the Browns’ best trade chip, and moving him would go a long way toward securing some much-needed draft capital to ensure this rebuild doesn’t take too long.
If attaching Watson to Garrett negates that return, then it’s not worth it, as if the Browns are heading into a rebuild anyway, they might as well just eat Watson’s money for another year or two if they’re going to be rebuilding anyway.
That being said, if a QB-needy team can sell themselves on Watson and wants to push all their chips into the pot, the Browns would be wise to consider this.
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