Myles Garrett is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, winning the award for the second time in his career last season. He was the favorite to win the award again this season after being traded to the Los Angeles Rams, but an early-season knee injury cost him seven of the team's first nine games.
He was dominant in his return last week against the Commanders, recording three sacks and eight pressures in the Rams' win. That gives him three sacks in two games played, putting him on pace to finish with 15 sacks this season. He told Rich Eisen that he can still win Defensive Player of the Year, and he plans to chase down everyone ahead of him on the sacks leaderboard – including the great Will Anderson Jr., who leads with 9.5.
"Absolutely," he
said of whether he can win Defensive Player of the Year before Eisen responded, "You didn't stutter."
"Nothing to stutter about," Garrett continued. "There's I don't know how many games left. I've just got to take it one game at a time. It's a matter of impact and presence and how much disruption. I plan on walking down every single person at the top of each respective stat leaderboard that's measured for my position. I love the guy who's at the top, Will. I have a lot of respect for him, but my plan is to go get him and not make it easy on him if they do hold the games against me. I'm not going to make it easy."
Garrett won't average three sacks a game, but averaging one a game for the rest of the season is certainly doable, especially with Aaron Donald rushing next to him. That won't be enough to lead the league in sacks again but he could make things interesting in the race for Defensive Player of the Year.
He's a mega-long shot, according to DraftKings, entering Week 10 with +20000 odds to win the award, way behind Anderson at +150. But with a talent like Garrett, anything is possible.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Myles Garrett 'absolutely' thinks he can still win DPOY, lead NFL in sacks
