Myles Garrett is threatening one of the NFL's most hallowed records, yet his brilliance is being squandered on a Cleveland Browns team drifting through another lost campaign. The defensive end has registered 21.5 sacks through 14 games, putting him on pace for 26 and within striking distance of Michael Strahan's single-season record of 22.5. His current average of a sack per game over his career further underlines the scale of his achievement.
What makes Garrett's numbers all the more remarkable is the context. The Browns have won just three games, their offence ranks 32nd in the league, and opponents routinely run the ball late to shorten contests. Unlike Strahan in 2001 or TJ Watt in 2021, Garrett has not had the benefit of playing with leads or forcing teams to chase points. Despite being the focus of every opposing gameplan, he continues to dominate.
The statistical comparison to past greats is striking. Among players with at least 18 sacks in a season, Reggie White's 1987 campaign had 24.8 team pass attempts per sack; Garrett is at 20.3, a figure that places him in a class of his own. He is also chipped or double-teamed at a rate second only to Micah Parsons, and his average get-off time of 0.78 seconds is a career best, well below the league average of 0.97.
Garrett's sustained dominance places him above a generation of elite edge rushers, including Parsons, Maxx Crosby and Aidan Hutchinson. Speaking before a recent game, he said: “I don't even think about it as a want. I just think about something that I'm going to knock down. It's already been written in my mind.”
As the season enters its final weeks, the question is not whether Garrett can break the record, but what his team should do with a player whose prime is being frittered away. The Browns have made the playoffs only once since drafting him, and his historic pursuit is fast becoming the sole bright spot in another year of rebuilding.
