I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but apparently Myles Garrett does.

In what’s shaping up to be the first major story of Super Bowl week, Garrett got literally every single person’s attention on Monday morning when he went public with a trade request. After eight insanely productive – individually, at least – years in Cleveland, Garrett now wants to go play for a team that, you know, has any shot of playing for a Super Bowl in the next few years.

“While I’ve loved calling this city my home, my desire to win and compete on the biggest stages won’t allow me to be complacent,” Garrett said in statement released on X. “The goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton, it has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl. With that in mind, I have requested to be traded from the Cleveland Browns.”

Perfect Aidan Hutchinson pass rushing partner just fell into Lions' lap

Myles Garrett in Detroit is probably not realistic but it sure is fun

Just to quickly rain on everyone’s parade, Garrett comes with a hefty salary. His cap hit increases every season for the next three years, and that’s *starting* around $20 million. Even if I told you how high his cap hit reaches by 2027, you probably wouldn’t believe me. (Although it is the Browns, so maybe you would.)

The Lions have a fair bit of cap space to work with this offseason — according to Over The Cap, they have the eight highest “effective cap space” of all NFL teams this offseason — but less so in the following two seasons. There would have to be a fair amount of GM wizardy to make it work, but who better to pull that off than Brad Holmes? There’s a time for thinking more realistically about trades and cap space and money, but that’s not during Super Bowl week. Everything’s possible during Super Bowl week — just ask the Lakers.

On a more fun note, imagine a defensive line featuring Garrett and Aidan Hutchinson. With how competitive the NFC North is shaping up to be over the next 4-5 years, consistently getting to the quarterback is going to be all the more important. And as Lions’ fans found out this season, you can never have too much pass rushing depth.

Maybe* it’s not the most prudent long term answer (*definitely) but Detroit fans are just starting to find out how short Super Bowl windows actually can be. Sometimes you just have to take a big swing and figure it out afterwards. And what swing would be bigger than trading for a future first ballot Hall of Famer still in his prime?

This article first appeared on Side Lion Report and was syndicated with permission.