If you ask Detroit Lions fans what their No. 1 wish is this offseason, many will tell you it’s acquiring Cleveland Browns superstar edge rusher Myles Garrett, who recently requested a trade from the team.
The Lions desperately need to add more edge rush help in the form of both a depth piece and a player who can be an effective long-term running mate for Aidan Hutchinson.
Of course, Garrett would check the latter box in a big way and adding him could be the missing piece for the Lions to get over the hump and finally win a Super Bowl, as he’d take Detroit’s defense to a new level.
However, Browns general manager Andrew Berry remains steadfast in his stance that the Browns are not trading Garrett despite his public trade demand.
“Our stance really has not changed,” Berry said on Tuesday, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. “We’re not interested in moving him.”
It continues to be hard to believe that the Browns will simply deny Garrett’s request and force him to stay in a situation he doesn’t want to be in. It’s very possible Berry is trying to get back some leverage to get a better return.
Whatever the case may be, the topic of the Lions bringing in another premier pass-rusher to help Hutchinson came up while general manager Brad Holmes was addressing the media at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday.
Holmes admitted that he’d love to have multiple top-notch edge rushers, but being able to afford them is difficult. After all, Hutchinson is cheap now but he’s in line for a massive extension sooner rather than later.
“Would we want to have another one? Yes. But we’d like to have three or four high-end rushers,” Holmes said, according to Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit. “But that’s just not always the reality of what you’re able to do. It’s definitely not being ignored.”
“Those guys are hard to acquire, and it’s hard to keep them, financially. Again, we have one that’s due for an extension and we’ve already kind of gotten to the planning stages about him already,” Holmes added. “When you talk about adding another one, it’s, can you financially add another one? Because you want to add the other one on top of everything else that you have and that makes it tough.”
When asked if he thought the Lions could bring in a high-priced edge rusher this offseason to pair with Hutchinson, Holmes’ answer did not lend to the idea that Detroit is going to land Garrett.
“Probably not,” he answered.
Well, Holmes didn’t completely shoot it down with that answer, but that’s about as close as you can get. We still wouldn’t rule out the Lions making a play for Garrett, but the chances of that happening just got worse.
