After tallying four sacks in his first four games, Cleveland Browns superstar defensive end Myles Garrett, who to some is the best non-quarterback in the league, had no sacks in October. Despite the frustrations that come with that, Garrett continues to find ways to terrorize his opponents and fill the stat sheets in different ways, per Scott Petrak.
“I mean, yeah, but it’s part of the game,” Garrett said. “It’s not the entirety of the position and what it’s called to do. Getting pressure, getting disruptions and making plays all across the field, that has to be the mentality when the sacks aren’t there. When the teams are doing everything to keep me from being on the stat sheet in that particular column, I’ve got to fill up the column in other ways.”
Garrett has 18 combined tackles, seven TFLs, 10 QB hits, two forced fumbles and 20 quarterback pressures this season.
Garrett’s immense talents wasted on Browns
It’s another season down the drain in Cleveland. The 2-6 Browns are in the basement of the AFC North, and the team is now pivoting to quarterback Jameis Winston after Deshaun Watson’s Achilles’ surgery. Even if the Browns wanted to trade Garrett ahead of the NFL trade deadline, he would command too high of a price tag for interested teams. Would any team be willing to trade multiple first-round picks for him?
Garrett is under contract through the 2026 season. The way they’ve set up his contract and deferred his salary over multiple seasons, Garrett carries huge cap hits against the Browns if traded.
Browns’ head coach Jim Schwartz knows exactly what they have in Garrett.
“You just go and look, people run away from him. His ability in the run game continues to impact our team and then it’s hard to hold a team that’s No. 1 in the NFL on third downs to 20 percent unless you’re getting contributions out of guys like Myles. We want all our players to be successful and to get stats and those kinds of things. But when it’s all said and done, we’re just trying to stop the opponent and he’s helping us in a lot of ways doing that.”
Browns’ defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire makes this point even clearer by stating that teams must gameplan around him specifically every week.
“Every NFL team goes in with a Myles plan,” Cesaire said. “He’s former Defensive Player of the Year. He’s an explosive athlete and you got to account for him every play. So when you got a team that’s going in there thinking, ‘Hey, we got to stop this guy,’ that’s what you’re seeing right now. He gets the slide to him, he gets the chip to him, they’re just doing different things right now.
The Browns host the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 9 on Sunday, November 3, at 1:00 p.m. EST.
