BEREA — Andrew Berry had an opportunity to trade Myles Garrett in the winter of 2025 after the star defensive end demanded a trade. The Browns general manager, at that time, said no.
More than a year later, Berry sat in front of the media a day after sending Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for 25-year-old defensive end Jared Verse and three draft picks. So what changed for the general manager, who acknowledged he didn’t have that press conference on his “bingo card” at the beginning of the year?
“I’d always told myself that if we were ever in a position where we were going to trade Myles, three things would have to be true,” Berry said during the June 2 availability. “No. 1, it would have to have short- and long-term benefits. No. 2, as part of the trade, a young cost-controlled star at a premium position would have to be included. And the third piece is that there would have to be premium draft capital and there’s a very small set of deals that really satisfy those constraints. When it got to the point with our negotiations with the Rams, when all those things were satisfied, it really caused us to take a step back and really think about the decision.”
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In trading Garrett, whom Berry said did not request a trade, the Browns shipped a 30-year-old future Hall of Famer who was coming off setting an NFL single-season sack record while also winning his second NFL Defensive Player of the Year in three seasons. In return, they received a player in Verse whose first two seasons in the league have resulted in an NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award and two original-ballot Pro Bowl selections.
The inclusion of Verse was, Berry stated, the reason why he moved off the hard “no” he and the organization had established for teams calling about Garrett.
“Jared Verse, he’s obviously a huge part of this return for us,” Berry said. “Jared is an outstanding football player, former defensive rookie of the year, two time original ballot pro bowler. He’s a perfect DNA match for our attacking front. He’s really a terror in both phases, excuse me, both phases, both as a run defender and a pass rusher. And we are really, really excited to add him to our team. He allows us to continue to play defense as a high level, which has been our standard over the past several seasons and we’re really excited to welcome him into the organization.”
Andrew Berry didn’t want to trade Myles Garrett, until he did
Berry would’ve had ample opportunity to maximize Garrett’s value had the multi-time All-Pro been put on the market when he made his February, 2025, trade demand. However, those conversations never got anywhere because the general manager said he wasn’t interested in making a deal.
Even less than 24 hours removed from actually making the deal, Berry said he had fully expected to Garrett to be on the roster and at mandatory minicamp when it started June 9. That is, until the Rams simply made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“There are moments particularly in my job where opportunities come up that quite honestly are unexpected and they force you to stop and reevaluate and look at it and say, ‘Hey, is this something that could be really beneficial to the team?,'” Berry said. “And that was the case in this instance where it got to a certain point where we looked at what the trade details were and we asked ourselves, ‘OK, do we hold here regardless of because of how emotionally right it felt or do we ultimately make a decision that we think has a huge benefit to the team in both the short and long term?'”
Andrew Berry denies contract restructuring was part of the plan
The Browns raised a lot of eyebrows earlier in the offseason when it came out that they had reworked Garrett’s deal, which he had signed in March, 2025, after ended his trade demand. The thing that most seized upon was the way the restructuring made it fiscally much easier to be traded after June 1.
The cap hit this year for a summer deal was going to be split between $15.34 million in 2026 and $25.6 million in 2027, compared to more than $41 million if they had tried to trade Garrett around the draft in April. With no other clear advantages for the Browns in the restructuring, the outcome most expected to happen was the one that ended up happening.
“No, I mean, I’d like to sit here and say it was some grand master plan, but it really wasn’t,” Berry said. “What it did do is honestly probably because of a lot that was reported, that is what originally caused LA to reach out and check in and we said, ‘Hey, look, he wasn’t available.’ To their credit, they were really, really persistent and then really things kind of picked up after the draft.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns defend Myles Garrett trade to Rams. GM Andrew Berry explains move
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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