Myles Garrett has requested a trade from the Browns, and Valenti says the Lions should be all-in to bring him to Detroit -- even if it costs them a starter like Sam LaPorta or Brian Branch:
"He is one of the singular best players in the entire sport. If you subtract QB’s from the conversation, he might be a top-five overall player in the sport. He is dominant. If the Detroit Lions don’t get in on this, someone you’re going to face on your way to a Super Bowl next year will. The teams are already lining up, the Bills, 49ers, Ravens, Packers. This is life at the top of the food chain.
"My whole proposal is more about, there are very few players or assets I wouldn’t trade, rather than what I would. They could call up right now and say, ‘Three first-round picks plus Brian Branch.’ OK."
Or maybe more realistically, "A first, a third and LaPorta, I’m doing it."
Because the Lions have the 28th overall pick in the draft, says Valenti, the Browns will want more than just draft capital in exchange for Garrett: "They’re going to get a starter from you. They’re going to get multiple picks from you. Well, who are the starters you would trade?"
If you take Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell and Jahmyr Gibbs off the table on offense, LaPorta and Jameson Williams "would be the two pieces if I'm the Browns that I look at." And if you take Aidan Hutchinson, Terrion Arnold, Kerby Joseph and Alim McNeill off the table on defense, "that’s what led me to say, OK, do you trade Brian Branch?"
If the Lions add Garrett opposite Hutchinson, Valenti says they will "basically recreate what the Denver Broncos had in their heyday of ‘DEFWU: Don’t Ever (Bleep) With Us.’ It was Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. They had this pass rush that you couldn’t block. They killed people. They went to back to back Super Bowls. If the object is winning a Super Bowl, what have I said? We need another hell-raiser on this defense."
While trading for Garrett could threaten the Lions' future and prevent them from extending some of their in-house talent, "let me be unequivocal," says Valenti. "I do not care about the long-term ramifications. I do not care if it costs you players later. I do not care if it triggers a rebuild a year earlier. If I get a Super Bowl. Here’s the other thing. Imagine this front: Myles Garrett on one side, Aidan on the other, Alim in the middle. Who’s drawing single cover?"
The question comes down to this, says Valenti: "What are you willing to give up? And are you willing to finally come down off the altar of Brad Holmes and the ‘Let Brad Cook’ stuff? Do you just say, ‘You know what, you gotta go. It’s time.’ And you’re not keeping everyone around, anyway. If there is one player I’d be willing to screw around with contracts and adjust them and end up with a poison pill three years from now, a guy like Myles Garrett is who I would do it for."