The Cleveland Browns will be inundated with calls this offseason after star defensive end Myles Garrett formally requested a trade, though they’ll likely push back against the Pittsburgh Steelers or any of their other AFC North rivals who try to acquire him.
Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Steelers cornerback Rod Woodson, however, still believes there’s a chance Cleveland may slip up and reroute him within the division, specifically to the Baltimore Ravens, who he is now a radio analyst for.
“Which team gave all the money to the quarterback, Mr. [Deshaun] Watson?” Woodson said on The Rich Eisen Show. “So they make mistakes. You gotta hope that they make a mistake and give him to the Ravens.”
The Browns are far from a fault-free organization, and their history of blunders is well-documented, but trading Garrett to Baltimore, Pittsburgh or Cincinnati would take the cake.
At 29-years-old, he is coming off a 2024 campaign in which he posted 14 sacks and three forced fumbles. Garrett finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting after taking home the award last season, and he still has several years of his prime left to go.
Players who are six-time Pro Bowlers and four-time first-team All-Pros don’t shake free often. Quite the bidding war could commence if Cleveland commits to granting Garrett’s wishes and dealing him away, which would benefit the Steelers, Ravens and Bengals based solely on the fact that he’d no longer face them two times a season.
While that fact isn’t guaranteed, there’s no feasible path towards the Browns trading him inside the North. They won’t be hard-pressed to net tremendous value for Garrett elsewhere, and the last thing the franchise would want is for him to become a legend for one of their fiercest adversaries.
Speaking from Pittsburgh’s perspective, Woodson understood why it would be happy to see him leave the division while also opining that it could land him itself if the compensation is up to snuff.
“You want him to leave, but wouldn’t you want him on your squad?” Woodson said. “You just gotta package the deal right.”
The Steelers have a number of different holes on their roster that need to be addressed before adding another high-end pass rusher alongside T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Cameron Heyward.
Any team in the league could use Garrett, who has two years remaining on his current contract, but nothing is working in the favor of Pittsburgh, Baltimore or Cincinnati in regards to its chances of getting him. All three would have to blow any other offers out of the water while hoping his trade market doesn’t materialize as expected, and neither of those outcomes feel particularly likely.
It’s fun to imagine Garrett in the black and gold, but it’ll have to remain a pipe dream for the moment.
