https://sports.yahoo.com/patriots-pursue-myles-garrett-browns-115706817.html
Should Patriots pursue Myles Garrett after Browns star’s trade request? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
One of the NFL’s best defensive players, edge rusher Myles Garrett, publicly announced Monday that he wants to be traded from the Cleveland Browns.
Garrett was the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft and has spent the last eight seasons with the Browns. Cleveland has reached the playoffs only twice (2020, 2023) during that span and just finished with the second-worst record in the league at 3-14.
Garrett has been an elite pass rusher for almost his entire career. He has been selected first team All-Pro four times and second team All-Pro twice in eight seasons. He also won the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Garrett has been consistently dominant, too. He has tallied 10-plus sacks in seven straight seasons and 14-plus sacks in each of the last four campaigns. Since he entered the league, only Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt (108 sacks) has more sacks than Garrett’s 102.5. No other player has more than 84 during that stretch.
The Patriots badly need a player of Garrett’s caliber because their pass rush was the worst in football last season, tallying a league-low 28 sacks, and nine of those came in a Week 10 win over the Chicago Bears. So in the other 16 games, the Patriots had just 19 sacks.
The Patriots could upgrade their pass rush by selecting Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter with the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, but there’s a chance he will be taken sooner than that. Some mock drafts have Carter going as high as No. 1 overall. And if the Browns trade Garrett before the draft, they could take Carter with the No. 2 pick. Carter would be the perfect Garrett replacement for Cleveland.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was a consultant with the Browns last season, working primarily with tight ends. But as someone who spent an entire season in Cleveland, Vrabel should have a decent idea of Garrett’s strengths and work ethic.
What might the Patriots have to give up for Garrett if they’re interested in acquiring him?
Consider this: The Raiders traded 27-year-old star pass rusher Khalil Mack, in addition to a second-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick, to the Bears in 2018 in exchange for two first-round picks, a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick.
Garrett, 29, is two years older than Mack was when that deal happened. It also wouldn’t make sense for the Patriots to give up multiple first-rounders when they have so many glaring roster weaknesses to address. But what about the No. 4 overall pick in 2025? Or maybe a package based around a second-rounder and a third-rounder? The Patriots have two third-round picks in 2025 — their own (No. 69 overall) and the Atlanta Falcons’ (No. 77).
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();
The bottom line is the Patriots desperately need to bolster their pass rush before next season. Garrett is still in the prime of his career and hasn’t missed more than one game in a season since 2020.
The Patriots have $120 million in salary cap space, per OverTheCap, which is the most of any team right now. They should use a good chunk of that money in free agency, but all of this cap space can also be valuable for them in the trade market.
https://sports.yahoo.com/patriots-pursue-myles-garrett-browns-115706817.html
