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Four months after trading Myles Garrett to the Rams, the Cleveland Browns sit atop the AFC North and are being talked about as trade deadline buyers. The defensive line that began life without him has held up better than most people along the lakefront expected.
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CBS Sports thinks general manager Andrew Berry could add to it. Its list of deadline candidates pairs Cleveland with Kayvon Thibodeaux, the New York Giants edge rusher drafted fifth overall in 2022, and suggests a Day 3 pick could be enough to get him.
What the Browns would be getting
It would be a bet on a player trending the wrong way. Thibodeaux had 11.5 sacks in 2023. He has eight in the two-plus seasons since and none this year, and PFF grades his pass rush at 49.4, which ranks 108th of 110 edge defenders. After Brian Burns tore his ACL in Week 3, Giants coach John Harbaugh said his team needed “to get to the quarterback more” and called Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter “a massive, massive part of that going forward.” Thibodeaux followed with two tackles against Arizona.
Cleveland has reason to look even with 12 sacks, tied for fifth in the league. Mason Graham has four of them and is expected to miss weeks with knee and ankle sprains. Jared Verse, the centerpiece of the Garrett return, has seven pressures and no sacks on 110 pass-rush snaps, according to PFF. Five different Browns sacked Aaron Rodgers in the win over Pittsburgh, and Verse was not one of them.
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Paying for Thibodeaux would be easy. About half of his $14.75 million fifth-year option would be left at the deadline, the Browns have roughly $14 million in cap space and Berry holds 11 draft picks in 2027, including the Giants’ own fourth-rounder. He would be a rental, with his contract up in March.
The schedule may make the decision. Cleveland visits the Jets on Sunday, then Baltimore comes to Huntington Bank Field on Oct. 18 with the division lead possibly at stake. How the pass rush holds up without Graham in those two games should tell Berry whether a former top-five pick is worth a Day 3 flier.
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This story was originally published October 9, 2026 at 11:30 AM.