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Garafolo said this news comes after Garrett made his request for a trade public on Monday morning. The Browns have been adamant about their desire to keep Garrett with the team for the entirety of his career, but that could prove difficult. The star pass rusher has officially requested a trade from the team in hopes of having a chance to compete for a Super Bowl, and the Browns, who currently hold the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, are nowhere near said goal. At just 29 years old, Garrett could still fetch the Browns plenty of draft capital via a trade. They would be wise to listen to any offers as they near what appears to be a rebuild following their 3-14 finish last season.

This announcement comes just days after Browns GM Andrew Berry said at the Senior Bowl that the Browns would not entertain any trades for Garrett. We’ll see how firmly he and the team hold to that statement in the coming months, but in a statement released by Garrett, the star pass rusher said his goal “has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl,” a goal the Browns appear far off from accomplishing following a 3-14 season. Garrett totaled 14 sacks and a career-high 22 TFLs last season, on his way to earning his fourth First-Team All-Pro honors in the last five seasons. The 29-year-old star should still have plenty of productive years left in the tank and is under contract for two more seasons. He’ll likely have several suitors on the trade market if the Browns decide to entertain offers in the weeks/months ahead.

Musgrave served as a senior offensive assistant on head coach Kevin Stefanski’s staff for the past two seasons. The Browns now move him to quarterbacks coach to work with a quarterback room that is far from finalized. Deshaun Watson is injured, and the starting spot is still in flux amidst middling quarterback play the last few seasons. Musgrave has offensive coordinator experience in both the NFL and college. He moves to try and improve the Browns’ quarterback output.

The specific question and answer about trading Garrett was: “if someone sees you at dinner tonight and says, ‘we’ll give you two ones for Miles do you say I’m not interested?’” to which Berry said “Correct, you can put that on the record.” Berry also indicated a willingness to talk extension with Cleveland’s star pass rusher, saying “I think you can assume that we do anticipate at some point doing a third contract with Myles. We want him to retire here.” It’s not much of a surprise as the Browns have never operated as sellers at any point during Berry’s tenure and Garrett just put together a season as good as any edge player in the NFL, but there were some rumblings about the Browns considering a trade for Garrett in December. It does not look like that will come to pass.

Ventrone was in contention for the Colts’ vacant head coach role in 2023 before ultimately ending up in his current roles with the Browns. The 42-year-old appears to be on the head coaching fast track and accepting the temporary position at the Senior Bowl will both provide valuable head coaching experience while also giving Ventrone an in-depth look at the 2025 rookie class. Giants offensive coordinator and assistant head coach will lead the other Senior Bowl squad.

The fact that Rees got the first interview was pretty telling about the direction that this search was going. Cleveland also interviewed Falcons tight end coach Kevin Koger, Seahawks quarterbacks coach Charles London, Saints OC Klint Kubiak, and Dolphins QB coach Darrell Bevell for the position. Rees, a former Notre Dame quarterback, coordinated their offense from 2020-2022 and the Alabama offense under Nick Saban in 2023 before taking a position with the Browns as their tight ends coach and passing game coordinator. Rees won’t call plays — that is Kevin Stefanski’s job — but this is still a big promotion for a 32-year-old and one that marks him as a potential NFL head coach at some point.

The Browns could certainly make things contentious if they choose to here. Watson’s contract is fully guaranteed, and without the fully-guaranteed deal, there’s not much reason he needs to be on the roster at this point with little chance of playing in 2025 and almost no investment in the idea that he’s still a starting-caliber quarterback. Watson has $92 million in guaranteed money due to him over the next two years. Both sides moving on feels inevitable, it’s just a question of how long it takes to get there.

This was actually the first interview of their process. The former Fighting Irish quarterback was Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator from 2020-2022, and coordinated the Alabama offense under Nick Saban in 2023. It would seem like Rees is one of the favorites to get the role, though the Browns have three other candidates in the mix at this moment.

The Saints are allowing Kubiak to speak with other teams as they continue to work through their head coaching interviews. The son of long-time offensive coordinator and Super Bowl-winning head coach Gary Kubiak, Klint Kubiak joined the Saints last offseason after working as the 49ers’ passing game coordinator in 2023. In his lone season with the Saints, Kubiak’s offense started hot with back-to-back 40 point outings, but wound up finishing 24th in points scored and 21st in total yards. The team’s collapse was undoubtedly impacted by the injuries to Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed, who combined to miss 20 games this season, while Derek Carr missed seven games of his own due to a number of injuries. Long viewed as an up-and-coming offensive mind, Kubiak the Seahawks and Browns both appear willing to give him a mulligan for 2024. Kubiak will almost certainly get another shot as a play-caller in the near future, even if it’s not in 2025.

Things go from bad to worse for Watson, who tore his Achilles for a second time after suffering the initial injury less than three months ago. It’s hard to know the impact of this injury on the Browns, as the team has long been rumored to be interested in adding other quarterbacks this offseason. Some have gone as far as to speculate that Watson will “never play a meaningful snap for the Browns again.” Regardless, Watson faces an even longer road to recovery after undergoing another surgery on Thursday to repair this second tear. It wouldn’t be surprising if this injury sidelined Watson for all of next season. According to Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap, if Watson re-injured himself while doing something “he was not supposed to be doing” the guarantees in his contract could be at risk.