Here’s ultimate timeline of Myles Garrett standoff with Browns, per NFL insider

Imagine Luka Doncic as a midseason addition for the 40-9 Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, picture Myles Garrett with a perennial Super Bowl contender.

Many wondered why the Mavericks didn’t seek better offers for Doncic – including the Cavs team of which Garrett owns a stake — before sending him to the Lakers. But thanks to Garrett’s public trade request on Monday, the Browns will have the luxury of all those offers should Cleveland choose to listen. CBS insider Jonathan Jones on Tuesday morning outlined how he sees Garrett’s timeline playing out this spring.

• Will Cleveland back off its firm stance and listen to offers? “They’re not going to follow through with it right now,” Jones said. “They are going to posture and publicly stand on, ‘We’re not trading Myles Garrett,’ because that is what they’ve been saying for the past month. … Just because your star player created a graphic and sort of PDF’d his name and signature onto it, it’s not like, ‘Oh, well he put out a graphic; we got to trade him now.’ So, no nothing publicly from the Browns is going to change.”

• Key dates in the Garrett timeline include the NFL releasing the 2025 per-team salary cap figure, which last season happened on Feb. 23, and the start of unrestricted free agency and the new league year, March 12. Plus, suitors will avoid the Jets’ mistake in acquiring Haason Reddick last year and finalize a contract extension prior to acquiring Garrett. “I bring that up because if you’re trading for Myles Garrett,” Jones said, “you’re obviously going to want to be able to, A, fit him under the salary cap this upcoming year, but you’re also going to be giving him an extension because he last got one several years ago. So, he’s due for one when you trade for him what you were going to have to trade for him.

• When is a trade most likely to happen? “The sweet spot is really the beginning of March into mid-March. March 10th to 12th, that’s the legal tampering window; after that free agency quote unquote officially begins. That is when you would have traded Myles Garrett if you are the Cleveland Browns. Could they wait until the first night of the NFL Draft (April 24)? They could. I don’t think that you would do that. So soft deadline, mid-March. Hard deadline, late April.”

• Interested GMs will low-ball Andrew Berry but don’t expect Berry to simply give away the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. Ultimately, though, are the Browns better off from a football standpoint by trading Garrett? “I actually think philosophically, fundamentally, it would be the best thing for the long-term interest of the Cleveland Browns to get two first-round picks for 28-going-on-29-year-old Myles Garrett; not paying him what you’re going to have to pay him, $35 million a year or something, and just saying, ‘Alright, we’re moving on with the next chapter of Cleveland Browns football.’”

Of course, the Browns ultimately control the situation and could play hardball, as Kyle Long told Jones. Long recalled Khalil Mack’s 2018 contract dispute with the Raiders before the team traded him to Long’s Bears on final cutdown day. A precedent-setting trade, that deal actually changed the league. Long said Mack showed up in fantastic shape and expects Garrett to do the same, should Garrett choose to hold out and pay daily fines deep into August.

“Let’s remember,” Jones said, “this is a guy who has made tens of millions, probably more than $100 million in career earnings. He’s a part owner of an NBA team. So, he’ll take the fines.”

For more information on the Browns or free agency, visit the Cleveland team page and the NFL free agency page at ProFootballPost.com.