Let’s state the obvious right up front. Myles Garrett would look fabulous in a Seattle Seahawks uniform. Myles Garrett would look fabulous in all 32 NFL uniforms. Even in Brown’s orange, and that’s not an easy look to pull off. So we can all agree that everyone would like to have one of the league’s most disruptive defenders on their roster.
But under no circumstances – at least no realistic circumstances – should John Schneider trade for the disgruntled Browns’ star. History overwhelmingly suggests that such a move would bear minimal short-term results and would be potentially destructive long-term.
There may be a lot of ways to construct a championship-caliber roster, but two elements are vital. You need a very good quarterback. And you need to draft extremely well.
Reasons why Seattle Seahawks should not entertain a trade for Myles Garrett
Those two elements exist in tandem. Draft really well and perhaps you can get by with a B+ quarterback. That’s the San Francisco 49ers model. Find an exceptional QB and maybe you can afford a few more draft misses. That would be the Cincinnati Bengals. I’ll point out here that though both franchises have flirted with the Super Bowl in recent years, neither has actually won a Lombardi Trophy this century (or ever – in the case of the Bengals.)
It's obvious that teams have hit paydirt by trading for high-profile players like Garrett in the past, but the teams that did were in a very different position than the 2025 Seattle Seahawks. Those teams were the proverbial “one player” away. In other words, they already had very good rosters built through shrewd drafting and/or an above-average quarterback in place.
Geno Smith may be an above-average quarterback, but I would suggest he’s much closer to Purdy than to Burrow. And he turns 35 next season. There’s no telling how much longer he will be able to perform at his current level. On top of that, the Seahawks have not drafted especially well over the past 5-7 years. It has not been a disaster. They have acquired several first-rate players. It just hasn’t been especially good.
They have gotten slightly better-than-average QB play over the past four seasons and have had slightly lower-than-average draft production. The results? A 35-33 record. A point differential of +4. That level of mediocrity doesn’t come out of thin air.
The addition of Myles Garrett would improve Seattle. Would it make them a Super Bowl contender? It would not unless they hit the jackpot on several other moves. And it would cost them quite a bit.
We don’t know what the Browns will ask for in return for Garrett. I will be shocked if any trade doesn’t yield multiple high-draft picks. At a minimum, a first-round pick and several other Day 2 picks. It is highly likely that some team is going to offer multiple first-rounders. The Seahawks do have a very good trade chip in DK Metcalf, but the Browns would be foolish to trade Garrett and not end up with a lot of high-end draft capital.
Seattle has too many holes on its roster to afford that price in 2025.
In recent years, two teams have done very well by trading first-round draft picks for star players. In 2021, Kansas City traded a first-round pick to Baltimore for offensive tackle Orlando Brown. There were other pick swaps, but it was essentially a Brown-for-first-round pick deal. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl a year later.
A year later, Philadelphia gave up a first-rounder, along with a third-rounder, to Tennessee for A,J. Brown. The Eagles are going to their second Super Bowl since making that deal.
Obviously, Kansas City and Philadelphia benefitted from those trades. But do you notice anything about those two franchises? Something that doesn’t apply in Seattle right now?
Both had excellent quarterbacks. Both had complete rosters built primarily through the draft. Those teams were truly “one player away.” Do you know how we know that? The Eagles had won the Super Bowl in 2017 and had been to the playoffs every year between ’17 and ’21, with the exception of 2020 when multiple injuries devastated their offensive line. And the Chiefs?
Well, I probably don’t have to explain to you how good their team was. But in case you need a refresher – when they made the Brown deal they had won the AFC West five straight years and had been to the Super Bowl twice. They had the best quarterback in the league and a first-rate roster.
Wait – I forgot about the Rams giving up two first-rounders for Matthew Stafford in 2021. That got them a Super Bowl. Of course, the Rams had built a good enough roster through the draft to advance to the Super Bowl a few years earlier. More than any team in recent history, the Rams were legitimately “one player away.”
The Rams have continued to draft at an exceptionally high level, which is why they gambled and won with Stafford and continue to have a very competitive team.
The Seahawks do not resemble the Rams, Chiefs, or Eagles of the past five years. Do you know who they resemble? Maybe the Seahawks of 2020. That team was better than the 2024 team. They went 12-4 and advanced to the playoffs. They thought they were close. So they traded two first-round picks, along with a third-rounder, to the Jets for All-Pro safety Jamal Adams. That was going to make them Super Bowl contenders.
Long-story-short. It didn’t.
Do you know who was selected with the draft picks Seattle gave up? Christian Darrisaw and Garrett Wilson. How would they look in Seahawks jerseys today? A lot better than Adams.
Seattle is not the only team that thought they were close enough to a championship to sacrifice major draft assets for a star player. Chicago gave the Raiders a pick that would result in Josh Jacobs in order to acquire Khalil Mack. The Browns gave up a pick that turned into Dexter Lawrence, along with multiple other solid assets in order to get Odell Beckham, Jr.
Even when it seems to work out, it might not. Buffalo probably made a good call in acquiring Steffan Diggs back in 2020, but it didn’t get them a Super Bowl appearance. The primary asset they surrendered for Diggs turned into Justin Jefferson.
The Seahawks are still paying for the 2021 draft black hole that grew out of the Adams deal. Since then, they have acquired some good players, but not enough to have a top-ten roster. Giving up more draft assets and acquiring Myles Garrett makes them better in the short term, but it is a Band-Aid. It doesn’t address the fundamental roster problem.
Trading Metcalf for draft capital would be one step toward fixing this problem. Signing Tee Higgins in conjunction with a Metcalf trade would allow for that without going into a major rebuild. But none of it matters if John Schneider and his team don’t make smart draft picks over the next couple of years. If they do, they may truly be “one player away” and in a position to make a bold move to chase a Super Bowl.
They’re just not there yet.