This is the collateral damage of the Deshaun Watson debacle. This is what happens when the biggest trade in franchise history turns into the heaviest anchor on a team still thrashing to get out.And yet this was always the smartest move for the Browns to finally pull themselves out of the grave they’ve been digging for 30 years.Nobody wants to trade Myles Garrett. No general manager wakes up excited to willingly move on from one of the greatest players in franchise history and easily the best since the team returned to the NFL in 1999, but the Browns left themselves with little choice when their biggest swing for a franchise quarterback disintegrated into $230 million of injuries, allegations and disappointments.I wrote last year when the Cleveland Browns signed Garrett to a massive extension that they should’ve traded him instead. It’s the fastest way out of the mess they created for themselves.For years, Garrett made clear he didn’t want to be the next Joe Thomas, a Hall of Fame player whose career died on the vine with a franchise that could never figure out how to win. Garrett has been vocal for years about his desire to play for a winning organization. He did nothing but tell the truth during his publicity tour during Super Bowl week last year, when he went public with his trade demands about how far away the Browns were from winning. Try as they might, the Browns failed for nine years to build a team around the most ferocious pass rusher in the NFL.Whether this was always the plan, to move Garrett this offseason, or whether it became the plan once Garrett’s preferred choice for head coach, Jim Schwartz, was passed over in January is a question that will likely be answered in the coming days and months, perhaps by Garrett himself.Nevertheless, this was always the way out because, as good as Garrett is, he isn’t a quarterback and therefore cannot impact winning at nearly the same level. For all of Garrett’s greatness, the Browns have managed to win just eight games over the past two years. He had five sacks in a game against the New England Patriots last season — and the Browns lost by 19 points.When trying to decipher the value of edge rushers to winning football games, look no further than the Dallas Cowboys, who went 7-10 during Micah Parsons’ last season there. They went 7-9-1 last year without him.Defensive ends are a luxury when a roster’s quarterbacks are collectively the worst in the league, which the Browns’ are. The team has quietly been sending messages that Shedeur Sanders likely isn’t viewed as the long-term answer at the position, and nothing shrieks that louder than this trade.If the team had been convinced Sanders was the answer, there would be no reason to move on from Garrett. Instead, the team keeps hinting that Watson is likely to start despite the last four seasons with him being a complete disaster. This move signals the Browns still don’t believe they have their answer at the game’s most important position. That’s why they traded for another first-round pick in a draft that is expected to have a bounty of quarterbacks in 2027. That’s the only reason to move on from Garrett now.Until the Browns find a quarterback they believe in, nothing else matters.At 30, Garrett is hardly nearing retirement, but he also doesn’t align with the ages of the rest of the core of this team. I’ve written for years that the Browns’ sole focus right now is getting a product on the field that is marketable when their new domed stadium opens in 2029. That means having a quarterback they believe can win at a high level by ’27 or ’28 when they need to start selling Personal Seat Licenses. This is yet another signal toward that.As for Andrew Berry, he is now stained as the general manager who orchestrated both the worst trade in sports history and the GM who traded away the Browns’ best player of the last 30 years. Most GMs would be fired for one or the other, but Berry has managed to survive both. It’s really quite a feat. Yet the Haslam family continues to stand by their man.Berry for months — the last year, actually — has maintained he had no interest in trading Garrett. Now his only way to survive in this role is to hit on a quarterback in the 2027 draft. The Browns have ample ammunition to move up the board if they so choose.Jimmy Haslam’s messaging since the end of the season has been that it’s time to win. It never made sense. I thought Haslam was much closer to the truth when, after the 2025 season ended, he said the Watson trade was a swing and a miss and it would take years to dig out of.The Browns, it seems, have come back to reality with where this roster is positioned and what they still need. This is a sad day in Browns history, but it was also the necessary next step.There is plenty to blame the Deshaun Watson trade for since he arrived in Cleveland. Now you can blame him for this, too.Jun 1, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. 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