ESPN’s Field Yates is reporting that the Browns and star Edge rusher Myles Garrett have agreed to a modified contract where the two sides have agreed to push back the option dates in his contract from late March to early September. This is a pretty bizarre move on Garrett’s end as it defers the payment of salary each year to Garrett and really just opens up a trade window each year, except Garrett has a no trade provision. It is hard to really tell what the logic is here from either side.
Garrett’s original contract extension, per a source with knowledge of the contract. had yearly option bonuses due in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Garrett was able to get the Browns to break from tradition and have the exercise date of the option tied to the 15th day of the league year. This would force the Browns to commit to a payment at that time and more or less protect him from losing much of that salary if he were to somehow breach his contract after the 15th day.
Under the prior terms he would be paid $10 million in 2026, $13 million in 2027, and $7 million in 2028 within a month of the option being exercised by the Browns. The balance would then be paid concurrent with his salary and as lump sum on March 31 of the following year. Now those initial payments are deferred until the fall when the new option date occurs. Yates did mention that there are payment benefits to Garrett so the Browns must have moved some of the money due with his weekly salary up to make up for what is somewhere around a 6 month delay to being paid. Garrett also received March roster bonuses in the final two years of his contract but considering the Browns got him to move this bonus I’m sure they don’t envision that as much of a concession.
The Browns don’t gain any cap room by making this move unless they actually changed the option amounts this year. They already had the lowest cap charge possible for Garrett, outside of converting some per game bonuses to a signing bonus. All this does is give the team the maximum flexibility to trade Garrett assuming they were to get him to waive a his no trade clause. I guess there is also the soft factor of having everyone on the team have a similar exercise date.
This delayed option was a mechanism made popular by the Philadelphia Eagles where they would include option bonuses in just about every year of the contract where the date would usually be pegged to the start of the regular season rather than a traditional date in March, except for the second contract year (which is where Garrett is now). The benefit of this is all to the team. They delay payments until the fall and most importantly they delay financial commitments until that time. The option here functions the same as a restructured contract where the team gets the lowest possible cap charge for the player but at the same time still hold the rights to send that money to another team via trade or potentially escape things entirely is a guarantee void occurs for any reason. In a traditional restructure once you restructure the contract you are on the hook for the salary regardless of if you trade the player or not.
This mechanism has caught on with other teams in recent years. The Browns use this in every single contract. The Lions have used this in some of their big deals. The 49ers have adopted this mechanism. The Broncos have multiple options in each year, though they have actually used these to pick and choose when to take on bigger cap charges in a given year. Dallas uses them in the final year of contracts. I would expect more teams to use them because there really is no downside for the team.
By deferring the option the trade window for the player extends well into the summer. For example if Garrett had his option picked up today (or they had to restructure his contract to get the low cap charge he currently has) the cost to trade him on the cap would have been $70.3M on a trade during the draft and $21.4M for 2026 and $48.69M in 2027 if traded in the summer. The acquiring team would only be responsible for $2.3 to $3,3 million in salary for the year. With the delay the cost to trade during the draft is $41.1M and the cost in the summer would be $15.34M in 2026 and $25.6M in 2027. The acquiring team would be on the hook for $31.5 to $32.5M in salary and the Browns owe nothing. A similar situation exists next year where with the delay the trade cost is $48.9M during the draft and a $17.8/$31.1M split between 2027 and 2028 if traded in the summer.
As I mentioned on X, it is an odd move to make for a player with a no trade clause, but the Browns seemingly turned a very player favorable contract back into a team favorable one with this move and will certainly keep trade discussions out in the media next year if the team plays poorly this year. .