Abdul Carter might be a more productive player in Jim Schwartz's defense as an off-ball linebacker than at defensive end.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Along with future mock drafts, from time to time I will analyze a draft/trade/free agent scenario to help the Browns dig out of their 3-14 miasma. This is the first of these articles.
I don’t buy the argument that the Browns can’t possibly get better by trading Myles Garrett, their best player and arguably the No. 1 defensive player in the NFL.
By publicly requesting a trade and extolling his own virtues on national media platforms with the intent of enticing contending teams to acquire him, Garrett may have opened the eyes of the Browns to a sobering reality. They’re going nowhere with him, especially now that he’s in a disgruntled state.
Browns teammates respect Garrett. I don’t think they particularly like him. They don’t dislike him, but they don’t gravitate to him. A few ex-teammates have questioned Garrett’s leadership. They’ve been proven correct. Leaders don’t jump ship when times are tough, such as now.
Garrett essentially has announced to the league, “Our management, our coaches and my teammates are not good enough to get me to the Super Bowl.”
In Garrett’s mind, he has become one of the most feared defensive players in the league on his phenomenal physical attributes alone. In eight seasons, I have never once heard him give credit to a position coach or a coordinator for his individual success. Everything with Garrett is me, me, me, or I, I, I.
So be it. Other coaches don’t care. They are mesmerized by what they see on tape.
At 29, Garrett’s trade value will never be greater than this moment. The Browns should maximize this rare opportunity to jumpstart a team revival.
And what you’re going to read next has absolutely nothing to do with the quarterback position. That’s the subject of a future analysis.
The trade
If I could punch a ticket out of town for Garrett it would be to the New England Patriots.
I would offer Garrett to the Patriots for their 2025 first-round pick, No. 4 overall, and their 2026 first-round pick.
Why would the Patriots accept that deal?
First, they have a franchise quarterback, Drake Maye, entering the second year of his rookie contract. They have to press the pedal to the metal and take advantage of the cap room that luxury affords them. Garrett would be their franchise player on defense to lead that unit as Maye leads the offense.
Further, they’re embarking on a new era with Mike Vrabel as their new coach. Vrabel spent the 2024 season embedded in the Browns’ culture as a consultant. He knows the impact Garrett has on opposing offenses. Garrett and Vrabel could lift the Patriots defense to a playoff level immediately.
There is nobody in the 2025 draft, and quite possibly the 2026 draft, that can have the dramatic effect on the Patriots as Garrett.
Not unimportantly, Patriots owner Robert Kraft is 83 years old. His hopes of seeing his beloved Patriots play in another Super Bowl in his lifetime rests on immediate results. His team hasn’t won a playoff game since 2018! Cripes, even the Browns have done better than that.
How to use the No. 2 and No. 4 overall picks
It’s important for the Browns to promote the conversation that they are quarterback-destitute. Which they are, of course. But carrying on about their need and interest in a quarterback in the draft disguises the true intentions of this magnificent trade.
Nobody in this 2025 draft can replace Garrett alone. But the best two players on defense in this draft can transform the Jim Schwartz defense into a new, youthful, modern look.
With the second pick in the 2025 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns select Abdul Carter, defensive end, Penn State.
If you think Carter is the replacement for Garrett at right defensive end, you would be wrong. More on that below.
With the fourth pick in the 2025 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns select Mason Graham, defensive tackle, Michigan.
The plan
For 40 years, I’ve heard coaches I respect say you build a defense from inside out. Fortify the middle of the defense first. Yet for the longest time, the Browns’ defense has had a giant hole in the middle.
They have spent bags of cash on edge rushers and cornerbacks and it has gotten them nowhere. They have ignored the linebacker position and tried to patch the interior of the defensive line with bargain-basement free agents and mid- to late-round draft stabs.
Michigan’s Graham is the best defensive tackle in the 2025 draft, and it’s not close. A former high school heavyweight wrestling champion, he understands how to use leverage to win 1-on-1 matchups and absolutely wrecked Ohio State’s offensive line in Michigan’s now-forgotten, epic upset over the Buckeyes this past season.
At 6-3 and 320 pounds, Graham is powerful and instinctual, able to beat blockers to the quarterback, and is relentless -- similar to his former Michigan teammate, end Aidan Hutchinson. Schwartz could line him up over the opponent’s weakest interior lineman each game to create havoc. Graham would be the new face of Schwartz’s defensive front four.
The Browns, of course, would have to find a replacement for Garrett at right end. But it wouldn’t be Carter.
In my plan, Carter would be groomed in a role similar to Micah Parsons of Dallas and, yes, Zach Baun of the newly-crowned Eagles.
It’s looking as if Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah’s playing days could be over. The Browns haven’t updated JOK’s status since his frightening neck injury meeting Baltimore running back Derrick Henry head-on in October. At the least, it sounds as if the Browns can’t count on JOK; hopefully, he does play again some day.
All the more reason to use Carter as an off-the-ball force in the middle of the Browns’ defense.
One of the ingenius moves of the Eagles was defensive coordinator Vic Fangio moving Baun, a former edge rusher at Wisconsin and then the New Orleans Saints, to inside linebacker.
Baun, 6-3 and 225, put together a season he would never have accomplished from the edge. He led the Eagles in tackles (151), forced fumbles (5) and was second in tackles-for-loss (11), earning himself votes for defensive player-of-the-year.
Baun was even more impactful in the Eagles’ post-season run to the championship. He posted 33 tackles, two TFLs, one forced fumble, two recoveries and two interceptions, including one against Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl.
Carter, 6-3 and 250 pounds, was an off-the-ball linebacker his first two years at Penn State before bursting on the scene as a defensive end, producing 12 sacks, earning Big Ten defensive MVP honors and establishing himself as the best player in this draft (closely ahead of Graham).
I’ve checked with experts who believe that, if used like Parsons in Dallas and a little like Baun in Philadelphia, Carter can have more impact in the 4-3 system employed by Schwartz at linebacker than as a light, if quick, defensive end.
What about quarterback?
In this scenario, the Browns would basically concede they’re a year away from finding their quarterback-of-the-future. However, they could still take a stab at the second wave of QBs in this draft – Jaxson Dart or Jalen Milroe -- with their pick at No. 33 overall.
This strategy would put a great emphasis on the Browns choosing the right bridge quarterback in free agency. But their defense would be set up to carry the team into the future. Without Garrett.