Myles Garrett Met with Browns About Future; Sheds Light on Talks with LeBron James

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett made it abundantly clear last week that he wants to play for a contender.

"I want to win. I want the Browns to put me and us in a position to win. I'm not trying to rebuild, I'm trying to win right now," he told reporters. "There's gotta be a plan of action and just gotta know where things are going."

On Friday, he told reporters that he's since spoken to Cleveland's front office regarding that stance:

He also said he's consulted with LeBron James—who spent 11 seasons playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers and remains a Browns fan—over the years.

"I mean, he's seen everything on the sports side of it. His advice has been very valuable," he said. "Him, his team, just being able to be around them and learn from them has been very useful these last couple of years. ... Definitely using my platform, my voice, to my benefit and my team's benefit. It's been crucial."

The Browns, meanwhile, are at a crossroads. The team is mired in a 3-12 season and will have to make a very important decision on the quarterback position in the offseason.

Normally, Deshaun Watson's struggles before his season-ending ruptured right Achilles' tendon—he threw for just 1,148 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in seven games, completing 63.4 percent of his passes and take an unfathomable 33 sacks (and the numbers don't really do justice for how poor he was)—would have made the team's decision at quarterback fairly simple. It would be time to find a replacement.

But the Browns are on the hook for every penny of Watson's five-year, $230 million contract, which is fully guaranteed, runs through the 2026 campaign and has a full no-trade clause between 2024-26. They did rework his deal, yet again, to make it slightly more friendly to the team in future years from a salary cap perspective, though he'll still get the entirety of his guaranteed money.

None of the above is keeping the Browns from drafting his successor and making Watson the most ridiculously expensive backup quarterback in NFL history, of course. But committing that much of the salary cap to dead weight severely limits the team's ability to field a contender around superstars like Garrett (it should be noted that Garrett said his comments last week weren't a dig at Watson).

And the dominant defensive end has done his part in what has been a brutal season for the Browns, registering 41 tackles (18 for loss), 12 sacks, 26 quarterback hits and a fumble recovery. He remains one of the NFL's most disruptive defensive forces.

If Cleveland is staring down a rebuild while they wait out the Watson contract, one option would be to trade Garrett to a contender, potentially getting back multiple first-round picks in the process and jumpstarting the retooling effort.

It's possible that Garrett has already seen that writing on the wall. It remains to be seen if Cleveland's front office is doing the same math.