Nearly two months to the day after the Browns surprised everyone by trading defensive end Myles Garrett to the Rams, Btowns owner Jimmy Haslam addressed the move in a Friday press conference.
“That was Andrew’s decision,” Haslam told reporters, referring to G.M. Andrew Berry. “I don’t know what Andrew shared with you yesterday or in the past, that’s something that — the conversations we’ve had for about a while before it was announced, and the Rams were a good partner there and kept it quiet. But, a decision like that, ownership is going to be involved, but it’s Andrew’s decision, Andrew’s recommendation — in this case, ownership left it there.”
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Haslam was asked why he accepted Berry’s recommendation.
“Well, one, I think we got a really good player back, and I think you saw him today — a really good player who’s 25 years old and still on his rookie contract, so that’s the biggest reason,” Haslam said. “And then we picked up a one, a two and a three, and I think we all realize the three years we didn’t have number one picks due to the Deshaun [Watson] trade — one of those years I don’t think we even had a second — and the value of those picks, as we’ve proved the last two years, are tremendous. Myles [Garrett] is an unbelievable player. I was thinking the other night — Jim Brown, Joe Thomas, Myles Garrett — they’re all first-ballot Hall of Famers, world-class people, and so it was not an easy decision, but we’ve made it, we’re moving on and excited about Jared [Verse] and excited about those three draft picks.”
It was a surprising change of position by Haslam and the Browns after the 2025 season, one in which Garrett set the single-season sack record and was named the NFL’s defensive player of the year.
But, really, what did it do for the Browns? They won five games.
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Adding draft picks is a plus, given the draft picks that were squandered in the Watson trade. Those picks become cheap, young players who can (if drafted and developed properly) become key, long-term contributors.
It was still a stunning shift by the organization. In 2025, Haslam said the team never gave the possibility of trading Garrett a “serious thought,” even though he demanded a trade publicly in early February and wanted to meet with Haslam in early March. (Haslam declined to do so.)
A year later, the Browns did much more than give it a serious thought. They arguably could have gotten even more for him in 2025, without having to sign him to a new, market-setting deal that made Garrett decide to stick around.
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