Former Browns' star Myles Garrett: 'It's always been about winning'

For Cleveland Browns fans everywhere, Myles Garrett’s introductory press conference in Los Angeles was a pretty tough watch. Many people believed that he would be a Cleveland Brown for the entirety of his career, he included.

In his press conference, he said that he didn’t even hear about this being a possibility until last week, and that news for him came with “a bit of excitement.”

But now, as he sat in front of the LA blue and yellow, he said his final goodbye to Cleveland. His exact quote is as follows:

“Since the very beginning it’s always been about winning. It just breaks down to the timing of everything. What does it realistically look like to be a winner now? To have an opportunity to do that immediatley, that was an opportunity that too difficult to pass up. I will always have love in my heart for Cleveland, the city, the community, all its players and everything else. The opportunity to come here and have an immediate and profound impact on this team was just something that I had to move forward with.”

“Since the very beginning it’s always been about winning. It just breaks down to the timing of everything. What does it realistically look like to be a winner now? To have an opportunity to do that immediatley, that was an opportunity that too difficult to pass up. I will always have love in my heart for Cleveland, the city, the community, all its players and everything else. The opportunity to come here and have an immediate and profound impact on this team was just something that I had to move forward with.”

This is Myles’ opportunity to play for a bonafied winner, simple as that. The Rams are now the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl, and to tell the truth, they are as close to a super team as there ever has been in the NFL.

They have two legitimate MVP candidates in Garrett on defense and their quarterback, Matthew Stafford, on offense. Not to mention Puka Nacue, Davante Adams, Kyren Williams, Trent McDuffie, and Byron Young, to name a few. They have an embarrassment of riches, and Garrett gives them the ultimate closer on the defensive side of the ball.

Garrett did give the tip of his cap to the city of Cleveland. He did give everything that he possibly could have for the Browns and the state of Ohio. But one thing was abundantly clear: Cleveland is in rebuild mode.

The Browns are two or three years away from being a legitimate contender again, and unfortunately, that would have been the end of Garrett’s prime. Cleveland was staring down a very real possibility of wasting yet another Hall-of-Fame career on very poor results on the field.

As the dust has settled, both teams made a winning move for where they are at. The Rams are ready to get Matthew Stafford another Super Bowl, and Cleveland added one of the top pass rushers in the league, along with the opportunity to add three more players to their young core.

For now, the Browns go their way to rebuild, and Myles gets his opportunity to do what it is all about: win.