DE Myles Garrett (12.20.24)

How’s your back feeling?

“It’s feeling alright.”

 

Did it sort of tighten up on you over the course of practice?

“Just a little pull in practice.”

 

How about the eye? What did the eye doctor say?

“Contusion. He just got me really good on the outside part of my eye.”

 

Is it still bugging you?

“When I rub it still hurts. But yeah, it’s nowhere near what it felt like or looked like the first and second day.”

 

Do you have double vision? Can you line up on both sides now?

“How do y’all know about that? Yeah, I’m lining up on both sides just fine.”

 

As you head into this game, once again, you’re half a sack away from 100. So, how do you approach it? How excited are you to maybe reach this milestone this weekend?

“I’ll get five and just make it easy on myself. But that’s the approach every week. Get as many as you can, dominate, disrupt, help the team win, have fun doing it. So, it makes it no different that I’m half a sack away from 100 or any other milestone. Just want to go out there and win.”

 

Can you think about the success you’ve had sack wise against the (Cincinnati) Bengals throughout your career? What is it about this matchup that has allowed you to put up the numbers you have?

“Well, I mean, we’ve done a good job on the back end covering them, making it difficult for him to get to the guys he favors. He has a tendency to hold the ball and want to make a play with his arm. Everyone’s seen it, he can definitely do it. But I’m fortunate we’ve been able to rush as a unit and be together covering up any pockets he wants to slip through or lanes he wants to slip through and make those plays.”

 

Has he added any tricks to his ability to kind of maneuver around the pocket, try to elude some of that pass rush?

“No, doesn’t have any tricks. I’d say he’s just more athletic than most people think just because last year he was hurt, and he was dealing with some different ailments. And now that he’s feeling good, you can see the mobility for what it is and how much he can really extend the play and make plays down field.”

 

In the world of finding ‘whys’ in these last few games, would one of the whys for you potentially be the sack title, something that you not had an opportunity to win yet? Is that on your mind at all?

“No, winning is on my mind. Just to win. That’s all I want for Christmas.”

 

What about the fact that you’re going up against the current sack leader in Trey Hendrickson? Once again, I’m sure you want to show that you are the best edge rusher on the field, I’m guessing.

“It’s a little added motivation for sure, and that’s something that kind of wells up in me now as we get closer to game time. That competitive nature can’t help but like spark itself. But I have a healthy amount of respect for Trey and the kind of rusher he is, kind of person he is. So, love his game and definitely going to go out there and try to be the best player on the field regardless of our defense.”

 

You played through a lot this year injury wise, and I know you have throughout your career, but is it more important to you now to fight through stuff than maybe it would have been in the first couple years in your career?

“No, it’s always been important. I think the winners are the same way every single day, every time they step on the field, every time they walk out the door. They choose to approach every opportunity and situation as how can I win it? How can I become better from it? How can I improve? And I’m not going to lay down in any situation knowing that I could have got back up, fought for my teammates. I could have had an opportunity to show who I am and represent the name on the back of my jersey. So that’s just how I attack it from the very first time I stepped on the field for the Browns, and I’ll do it until the last step I take.”

 

How gratifying would it be for you to knock these guys out of the playoffs and have them join you in the going home club?

“You didn’t have to say the second part. Misery loves company. So, it would feel pretty good.”

 

As you alluded to last week, just some of the things that have happened this year that has led you guys to be in the position that you’re in. Just why hasn’t it, considering the talent you have on this team, just why hasn’t it worked this year?

“I mean, a multitude of injuries. But names on paper don’t win games. Cats got to go out there and execute. Dollar signs don’t win games. Talking about standard and culture doesn’t win games. Showing up early and staying late doesn’t win games. Execution and performance does. Practice habits do. Being about what you say. Accountability and responsibility. All those things lead to winning games. And I feel like there just wasn’t enough. It wasn’t as much as last year. We didn’t take a step forward like we talked about at the beginning of the year. And we were searching for that all year. And there were times in which we thought we had a grasp and we had figured it out, but it just wasn’t there. My job as a leader for this team, the captain for this team, is to make the guys realize it. And it doesn’t stop just because we don’t have a chance at the playoffs. We’re putting our best foot forward; we’re putting the film out for next year. How to figure it out, how to fight through adversity. When you are in a rut like this and losing streaks come and guys get hurt, how do you battle back? And we had those opportunities last year and we capitalized. So now we have to do it regardless of the situation. You have to be willing to fight the same way. Whether your season is ending or you’re 40 up or 40 down, you have to be the same person.”

 

Why do you think it didn’t translate from year to year? That it wasn’t the same as last year? Did you guys maybe take it for granted? What do you think happened? What was different?

“Hard to say. We weren’t playing well enough on defense to win games for the amount of points we were scoring. So, if we’re being held to 17 points, that means we have to hold them to 14. That’s just what it is. We have to compliment the offense. If they’re on a low right now, then we have to step our game up. Same with each phase, there’s going to be games where we let up 21, 28, and offense is going to have to kick into high drive and make those plays, but we have to make those plays down the stretch to give them the ball. So, we just play off each other and I don’t feel like there was enough complimentary football down the stretch. And that’s everybody’s fault. There’s no phase in which we were perfect or really great at. We have to be great as a team and we weren’t that special team that we were like last year.”

 

With the quarterback uncertainty heading into next season and some other things on the team, I’m just wondering, why is it so important for you to remain with the Cleveland Browns and finish your career here as opposed to maybe having an opportunity to join an absolute Super Bowl contender at some point in your career?

“Well, for me, I mean, first of all, I want to win and I want the Browns to be able to put me and us in position to win. And I’m not trying to rebuild. I’m trying to win right now. I want that to be apparent when the season’s over and we have those discussions. I want them to be able to illuminate that for me, illustrate that for me, so that can be something I can see in the near future. Cause that’s all we want to do. I want to stay loyal to a team that shows loyalty to me and faith in me by drafting me. But we have to do, at the end of the day, what’s best for us. So, if we have that alignment where this is something that is still possible in the near future, winning, going deep in the playoffs, putting a great defense out there, time of possession, running game, offense, getting all the guys back. And I think that would really keep my mind at rest, keep me settled. And not just mine, a lot of the guys on the defense, the D-line, around the team. But we have to continue to take strides forward, not just as players, but from top down.”

 

 Do they have to show you that they have a sound plan going forward? That you want to know, like what are we doing at quarterback and how are we going to get out there and contend again next season?
“Absolutely. As uncertain as it is from the outside looking in, it’s uncertain for us as well. So, if DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson) is the solution or someone else, it’s got to be drawn out. There’s got to be a plan of action and just got to know where things are going.”

 

If that vision did not align, could you see yourself not being a Cleveland Brown?

“I mean, it’s a possibility. But I want to be a Cleveland Brown. I want to play here. I want to end my career here. But if we choose to do a rebuild and it’s two, three, four years out, I want to be able to compete and play at a high level, play meaningful games and be playing past January.”

 

Dustin (Hopkins) was saying that one of the reasons why he was able to accept the kind of the day off last week was because Kevin (Stefanski) said, trust me on this and he trusted him. What is it about Kevin that you guys as players allows you to trust him when he tells you something?

“Because he’s been a man of his word. That’s all you can really hold a man to in any facet of life. He says what he means, he means what he says. And he’s been there for us, whether it’s on the field or off the field. So, if he says we got your back or he’s got our back, then I believe it because he’s shown it, not just for me, but with other guys. And that goes a long way with us.”

 

Last week, Jimmy (Haslam) came out and he said that he believes that Andrew (Berry) and Kevin (Stefanski) are the right pieces or the right guys to get the job done, and you mentioned that you would want to be part of that with him saying that. If for some reason that didn’t happen and they make some changes in those areas, would you still want to be here?

“I have no idea. I don’t know what pieces they’ll be adding or subtracting. So, I can’t hypothesize off of something I really don’t know of. Like I said, I need to see a plan to make plans myself. That’s for all of us, not just me.”

 

If they said, “Hey, we’re gonna go out and draft the best quarterback in the draft and start a rookie,” I mean, are you cool with that?

“Well, I’d have to see it. That’s the plan. But, you know, plans change, and we’d have to see if that actually happened. So, again, hard for me to hypothesize since that hasn’t happened and we haven’t had any of those conversations.”