Rost: Why the Seahawks should know not to trade for Myles Garrett

One of the best defensive players in football just became available. Kind of.

Cleveland Browns All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett publicly announced a trade request in a statement Monday morning. The problem, of course, is that Browns general manager Andrew Berry said just last week that he wasn’t interested in trading Garrett, including for two first-round picks.

Related: Should Seattle Seahawks pursue star DE Myles Garrett?

So that complicates things.

But let’s say Garrett could be traded. And we’ll assume the asking price begins with at least a first-round NFL Draft pick, plus more, or potentially two firsts. Should the Seattle Seahawks be one of the many teams interested in making that move?

Seattle’s last massive acquisition — also for two first-round picks — didn’t work out. But the idea was clear: every team is better with elite players, most especially when those elite players set the tone for your identity.

The Seahawks under Pete Carroll wanted to add physicality and talent back to the secondary, a unit that was once the best in the league and helped Seattle to its first ever Super Bowl win. The Hawks spent years trying and failing to replenish that with draft picks and free agents before finally pulling the trigger on a trade for Jamal Adams. At the time, Adams was arguably the best safety in football and a first-team All-Pro who was just 25 years old. They knew who they wanted to be and they felt Adams could get them closer to that again.

It never happened. Adams never met expectation and couldn’t stay healthy. But Seahawks general manager John Schneider proved he was willing to take a big swing to get massive talent, and a trade for Garrett would certainly be that, personified.

A four-time first-team All-Pro, Garrett is coming off his seventh consecutive season of double-digit sacks. For context, the Seahawks went six seasons before having another defensive player get double-digit sacks (Frank Clark and Jarran Reed did so in 2018, and no other Seahawk did it again until Leonard Williams in 2024). Garrett is a game-wrecker, a tone-setter, and a momentum-shifter. He’s going to be a Hall of Famer, and he could be available to a team just ahead of turning 30.

He would make Seattle better. There’s no doubt about that.

MYLES. GARRETT.

📺: #CLEvsLV on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/XInXMM4qYA

— NFL (@NFL) September 29, 2024

But even with that in mind, there’s this truth: the Seahawks aren’t a Myles Garrett away from being a Super Bowl team. Frankly, they weren’t a Jamal Adams away from being a Super Bowl team either, though the latter is far more obvious in hindsight.

The single biggest issue facing Seattle is the same one they faced then: they don’t have the pieces on their offensive line to compete with the best teams in football. Seeing a player like Garrett dominate an offense like Seattle’s makes a trade for him incredibly tempting, but the solution is to try to keep that player at bay more often, not send multiple first round picks to add him.

It feels silly to write it out. Who wouldn’t want Myles Garrett on their defense? Particularly for a team with a defensive-minded head coach (Mike Macdonald) who’s trying to turn this group into a top-five unit. But this team desperately needs to improve its offensive line, and they can look no further than the two final teams standing to prove the point.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will face off in Super Bowl LIX this Sunday. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Eagles running back Saquon Barkley are two of the single biggest reasons their squads are in New Orleans, but don’t overlook how their investments and development up front have paid off. These two teams also have two of the best offensive lines in football. Kansas City carries the single biggest salary cap hit for any offensive lineman in football (Joe Thuney), and the Eagles – one of the biggest spenders on the position as a whole – finished the regular season as the highest-graded group.

The lesson learned from the Adams trade isn’t that the Seattle Seahawks should never make a blockbuster deal, nor that a defensive player can’t define a franchise – which Garrett certainly does for Cleveland. Instead, it’s that leaving fewer resources available to the offensive line has never been something the Seahawks have proven they can overcome.

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