What next for Huke after Dallas Empire? Possible trades & CDL landing spots

In one of the most surprising roster moves of the CDL season, Dallas Empire dropped Cuyler ‘Huke’ Garland to the bench and replaced him with Tyler ‘FeLo’ Johnson.

Huke has long been one of the most talented players in Call of Duty, and since joining Dallas Empire at the start of the 2020 season during Modern Warfare, he’s lived up to that.

They became world champions at the end of Modern Warfare and, during Stage 1 of the current Cold War season, he looked absolutely formidable.

While his performances didn’t completely drop off, Dallas throughout Stage 2 weren’t as strong as they were, and they made the decision to bench Huke. Now the question becomes, what happens with him? Let’s look at his options.

Which teams could pick up Huke?

Based on the above tweet, with Huke saying that “it’s time to move on to a new chapter,” it seems as though his benching isn’t exactly a temporary measure.

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So, with Huke potentially moving on from Dallas Empire, let’s take a look at where he could end up for the remainder of the season.

• Seattle Surge: Since the start of the season, Surge’s SMG duo of Preston ‘Prestinni’ Sanderson and Daniel ‘Loony’ Loza have raised question marks. Neither are the out-and-out slayers teams such as Atlanta FaZe, Toronto Ultra or, of course, Dallas possess. With things heating up for Seattle and Champs qualification getting less and less likely, they need to make a decision.
• LA Guerrillas: Dropping Reece ‘Vivid’ Drost definitely seemed a weird decision at the start of Stage 3, as their best-performing player statistically. With the addition of Martin ‘Cheen’ Chino, who had a Team of the Week-level debut, they seem to have potential, but adding another high-level SMG to the mix could only be a positive. Apathy is a great player but arguably their weakest, and replacing him with Huke could keep this team’s Champs dreams alive.
• Paris Legion: While Donovan ‘Temp’ Laroda is still new to this Paris side, we imagine they’ll be wishing the Huke situation had come a little earlier. Matthew ‘Skrapz’ Marshall has been comfortable playing the flex role in the past, and having Huke running the SMG alongside Nicholas ‘Classic’ DiCostanzo could only help this team find more consistency in the league.

There are two other teams who have had glaring SMG issues this season: Florida Mutineers and London Royal Ravens. Simply put, we don’t see them bringing Huke in too soon. The Mutineers have just made changes, with Colt ‘Havok’ McLendon replacing Josiah ‘Slacked’ Berry, while London have frankly made more roster changes than they’ve had hot dinners.

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With rumors circulating that Trei ‘Zer0’ Morris has been dropped by London, they may be looking to make room for another star player and Huke more than fills the role. Whether they would be willing to pay for him, or if he’d even want to go there and likely miss out on Champs, are different questions entirely. It seems unlikely.

Of course, Huke could end up back on the Dallas starting line-up before long if their results don’t improve, but it’s looking bleak. At this point, you could make several great teams from benched players, and Huke would be the main attraction.