BEREA, Ohio — As the Cleveland Browns began their preparations for Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins at team headquarters in Berea Wednesday morning, their star defensive end, Myles Garrett, was in New York City to appeal his indefinite suspension for his actions against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in last Thursday’s 21-7 Cleveland win at FirstEnergy Stadium.
While the Browns pledged their support for Garrett both after the game and in the days following, they checked their concerns at the door and focused was squarely on the game against the Dolphins.
“We try to focus on what we can control, and the only thing we can control is today,” Browns coach Freddie Kitchens said. “We can control how we prepare to go on the football field, onto the practice field and how we practice, attention to detail and worry more about ourselves than anything outside of this building. Stay focused on today.”
Along with his legal representation, Garrett elected to attend in person his hearing with former NFL player James Thrash, who was jointly appointed to hear appeals for on-the-field actions, and the proceedings took less than two hours.
Now, the Browns and Garrett have to wait to see if he will have that indefinite ban reduced to a set number of games and if he can return at some point during the 2019 season.
“Here in this building today, we’re worried about Miami,” Kitchens said. “We can’t control that. We couldn’t control it initially, all the sentencing and stuff like that.
“We’re just going to control what we can control. We have nothing to do with that. Myles has great representation, but more importantly, Myles will represent himself well. We’re going to continue to support him and Larry (Ogunjobi), and we will not waver from that support.”
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With Garrett’s future unknown at this point, the Browns have to find ways to replace his productivity, including his 10 sacks through 10 games, 29 total tackles, including 20 solo stops and nine assists, and two forced fumbles.
Currently, fellow defensive end Olivier Vernon is working through a knee injury and is day to day, with Chris Smith, Chad Thomas and Bryan Cox Jr. all standing to see more playing time if Vernon is unable to go against the Dolphins.
“You’re never going to replace a Myles Garrett with one individual,” Kitchens said. “That’s what makes him so special, but do we feel like we have guys here that can do the job? Yes, we do, and I think those guys feel confident in that, too.
“Everybody has to do their job, and everybody has to do their job efficiently to put ourselves in position to be successful on each play, whether that be covering a little better, rushing a little better, everybody has to be on top of their game a little bit more. That’s the reason football is the ultimate team game. It’s not just one individual. It’s the ultimate team game, and we’ve got to exemplify that.”
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