The Cleveland Browns are going to learn a hard, but very important, lesson this fall.
Life is better when Myles Garrett is on the field.
It has been rare to see the Browns play without Garrett anchoring the defense, as he only missed 17 games in total during his nine seasons with the Browns:
- 5 games to injury in his rookie season
- 6 games to a suspension in 2019 for reminding Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph that actions have consequences.
- 3 games to COVID in 2020
- 3 games over the past 5 seasons due to various ailments
Basically, when there was a game to play, Garrett was available and not only made a difference, but he made everyone around him better.
This is not to disparage Jared Verse, who the Browns acquired along with draft
picks from the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for Garett. Verse was, after all, the 2024 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, and his 99 quarterback pressures are behind just Garrett and Green Bay’s Micah Parsons over the past two seasons.
But while Verse is a force, Garrett is a force multiplier.
Former defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said as much in an interview last week when asked about Garrett:
“Myles is one of the most gifted players who has ever played in the NFL. I’ve coached a lot of guys in 33 years, and two guys who stand out the most are Calvin Johnson (who Schwartz coached in Detroit) and Myles Garrett, as they did things big guys should not be able to do.
“It was a challenge practicing with Myles because he could destroy the offense, and they had a tough time completing plays. Every single game plan (from the opposition) started with ‘we are not going to let Myles Garrett beat us.’ When the whole game plan is to stop Myles Garrett, and he still sets the record for sacks, that tells you how special he is.”
Who on the current defense is going to have opposing offensive coordinators losing sleep during the week that the Browns are on the schedule?
Put simply, Garrett’s production was unlike anything seen in the league in a long time.
Consider that last season, when he set the single-season sack record, Garrett:
- Had 33 tackles for loss.
- Turned almost 30 percent of his QB pressures into sacks, according to ESPN.
- Had 8 unblocked sacks, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
- Was chipped on 26 percent of his snaps, compared to 12.5 percent for Verse, according to The Athletic.
- Was doubled-teamed on 59 percent of his snaps, compared to 41 percent for Verse, according to The Athletic.
- His 4 percent sack rate was the highest among edge rushers in the past 25 years, according to The Ringer.
It wasn’t just last year that Garrett shone, of course, as Diante Lee highlighted at The Ringer:
When he was on the field in his career, opposing quarterbacks had a passer rating of 86.7 and averaged just 6.6 yards per attempt. Without him, the Browns allowed a passer rating of 98.0 and 7.7 yards per attempt. For context, the Falcons had a passer rating of 86.7 and averaged 6.8 yards per attempt last year—the 49ers and Cowboys had passer ratings of 98.8 and 98.2 last year, both averaging around 7.5 yards per attempt. In short, when Garrett wasn’t on the field, whichever quarterback the Browns faced played like one of the league’s best; with him, that QB played like one that needed to be replaced.
That cry of joy you hear is Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Aaron Rodgers celebrating life without Garrett ruining their Sundays.
It is not just Cleveland’s defense that will be feeling Garrett’s absence, but the offense is now facing even more pressure.
The past few seasons, the thinking has been that if the Browns could field just an average offense, then they could find success because the defense could be dominant when it was clicking.
The offense rarely held up its end of the bargain, of course, and there is little reason to believe that will change as long as Cleveland employs what is arguably the worst quarterback room in the NFL.
So, if the defense takes a step back because they no longer have Garrett to rely on, it could be another long season for the Browns.
Does that mean all hope is lost? Of course not. There is still the outside chance that the improvements made across the offense can offset the quarterback play. And the defense should be hungry to prove that all its success was not attributed to just Garrett and Schwartz.
It is understandable why general manager Andrew Berry made the decision to trade Garrett, but that does not take away the sting of seeing Garrett in anything other than orange and brown.
And to be a bit worried about the impact his absence will have on both sides of the ball this fall.
