All is well again between Myles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns. The two sides have agreed on a contract extension that will pay the defensive end an average annual salary of $40 million and includes $123.5 million in guaranteed money, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported.
With the extension, Garrett will now be the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
The new contract ends a five-week saga during which Garrett requested a trade, saying he wanted to win a Super Bowl rather than be part of a rebuilding project. The Browns attempted to start talks on a contract extension, but Garrett cut off negotiations following his trade request.
Browns general manager Andrew Berry repeatedly said that the team had no interest in trading Garrett and wanted to extend his contract. Team owner Jimmy Haslem refused to meet with the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year when Garrett wanted to discuss his future with the Browns. Obviously, something changed between the two sides.
Garrett, 29, finished second in the NFL with 14 sacks last season, his fifth consecutive season with 12 or more sacks. Additionally, he had 47 total tackles, 22 tackles for loss, 28 quarterback hits and 83 total pressures, playing in all 17 of the Browns games.
He was named first-team All-Pro for the second straight year and fourth time in the past five years, along with earning Pro Bowl honors for the fifth consecutive season.
Garrett was the No. 1 overall pick by the Browns in 2017 out of Texas A&M. In his eight NFL seasons, he’s compiled 102.5 sacks and 352 total tackles in 117 games (114 starts).
However, Cleveland finished 3-14 last season and doesn’t appear in position to improve much from that in the near future as the team attempts to solve its quarterback dilemma while attempting to fix the stranglehold that Deshaun Watson’s contract has on its salary cap.
The Browns go into the offseason with only $4.3 million in cap space, according to Spotrac, which doesn’t leave much room to make key additions.
