The dust has barely settled on the Myles Garrett trade, and the Cleveland Browns have reopened the file on him. Insider Mary Kay Cabot recently reported that Garrett was “respected and revered” in the locker room, but “wasn’t necessarily universally loved.” She also noted that Jared Verse – the pass rusher who replaced Garrett in Cleveland – “will be more of a force multiplier and unifier than Garrett.” But not everybody agrees with this version of the story.

On the Deebo and Joe podcast, former NFL stars James ‘Deebo’ Harrison and Joe Haden discussed Mary Kay’s report, pushed back on it, and made the argument that Garrett’s personality was never the real issue.

“Let’s stick to what is true,” Harrison said. “Myles Garrett played nine seasons for y’all boys, 134 games. That man had 125.5 sacks, seven Pro Bowls, and two Defensive Players of the Year awards. And you know what y’all gave him in return? Y’all gave him two winning seasons, two playoff [appearances, and] one playoff win in nine years.

“So I’ll say this: If he lacked any leadership or motivation, they took it from him in the last nine years,” Harrison added. “He lost the motivation of being able to continually give you a pep talk while they’re getting their a** kicked.”

That’s the argument in a nutshell. Garrett gave Cleveland elite production for nine seasons and kept offensive coordinators up at night trying to game plan against him. Last season, he logged the single-season sack record with 23.0 sacks, the Browns had the 4th-best overall defense in the league, and the team still finished 2025 with a miserable 5-12 record.

Cleveland’s quarterback shuffle could be flagged as one of the biggest reasons for this. Across 9 years, Garrett has seen 16 quarterbacks line up under the center who could never find the rhythm in this offense. That kind of instability only produces fatigue instead of a stable room or a leader. As the Browns are going through the same thing this offseason as well, Harrison believes a similar fate awaits Jared Verse, too.

“Of course, Verse could be a person who could come in and unify,” Harrison said. “Look where he came from. He has hope; he believes that it could be done. He sees it could be done; he’s optimistic. But don’t worry. Trust and believe, they’re gonna take that away from him.”

Verse has only known immense success with the Los Angeles Rams in his first two seasons. He earned the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2024 and made his second straight Pro Bowl in 2025. While Verse was making stops and racking up sacks, his quarterback, Matthew Stafford, was on the way to becoming the league’s MVP. That kind of campaign instills confidence – but Harrison believes it could go away if the Browns keep making the same mistakes.

Joe Haden – who played seven seasons as a Browns cornerback – knows how the building operates. So when he made the case for Garrett on the podcast, he said the numbers matter most of all; everything else is secondary.

“You can lead by vocally talking and still going out there balling. But the main thing is the main thing,” Haden said. “If you’re not creating plays, if you’re not being on time, if you’re not being a true leader by example, if I just look at you and see what’s going on, that’s the way real leaders are. Because you’re just out there doing what you got to do, handling your business, being a grown man. The talking part is extra when you’re a baller.”

Haden’s view is the one the Dawg Pound will recognize. Myles Garrett did the hardest part – he showed up, produced, and carried a team that kept getting dragged back to the same hole. That’s leadership too, even if it’s not the kind that gets praised in a team-building quote.

The Browns traded him to the Rams, but they didn’t trade the story. Cleveland is now left with a bigger question hanging over them: Did Garrett lose some of his edge, or did the Browns spend nine seasons sanding it down?