BEREA, Ohio — Underestimate Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett at your own peril.
In the NFL Network’s annual special the NFL Top 100 Players, Garrett checked in at No. 49 overall, one ahead of his teammate, quarterback Baker Mayfield, but the normally mild-mannered pass rusher let his frustrations be known with a social media post.
Garrett reiterated those feelings following Saturday’s Orange and Brown Scrimmage at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland.
“I’ll never be anything higher than 49 again, unless it’s the end of my career and time to get out of there,” Garrett said. “If I reach 49 again, it’s time to call it a day, but bigger and better things are ahead for all of us and myself.
“Everything’s a motivator, the good things, the bad things. That just happened to be the most recent thing that I saw, and it just adds fuel to the fire.”
Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey said after a practice last week that Garrett was “kind of pissed off” by the rating and noticed an extra pep in his step throughout the first full week of training camp.
So far, the Browns have been happy by what Garrett has given them on the field.
“He has been very consistent,” Browns coach Freddie Kitchens said. “You know what? Myles has a high expectation of himself. We have just as high of expectation of him as he does himself. We are going to hold him to that, and he is going to hold himself to that.”
Fully healthy coming into the 2018 season, Garrett emerged as a leader for the Browns’ defense and registered 44 total tackles, including 35 solo stops, while playing in all 16 games for the team who selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
Of those 44 tackles, 13.5 were sacks on opposing quarterbacks for 75.5 lost yards and Garrett finished the year with the fourth-most sacks in a single season in franchise history.
With 20.5 career sacks, Garrett registered the most by a Brown in his first 27 games, as well as the most by a Cleveland defender in his first two professional seasons. This past year, Garrett ranked sixth in the NFL with the 13.5 sacks and fourth in the AFC with four forced fumbles.
“He has a chance to be special,” Browns offensive coordinator Todd Monken said after a recent practice. “With his size and athleticism, his ability to bend, he is hard to handle off the edge.”
Mayfield added, “Myles has been great. Anytime you can compete against a guy like that, it challenges everyone in the offseason. It challenges me to get the ball out quicker. Like I said, things I have been working on are no negative plays, less turnovers and less sacks so going up against a guy like that disrupts you so much, it is great practice for us. He has been doing a great job.”
