Myles Garrett: A light in darkness

By: Blake Hill​

It’s January 4 2026; the last Sunday of the NFL regular season. The Cincinnati Bengals are hosting the Cleveland Browns in a game whose outcome is practically meaningless. Both teams have had disappointing seasons, and had been eliminated from playoff contention weeks before, so there should have been no reason for anyone to care about this game. But somehow, the entire league had their eyes on this game for one reason. And that reason came with around 5:17 left in the fourth quarter. Joe Burrow takes a shotgun snap, and defensive end Myles Garrett shoots into the backfield like a bullet out of its chamber. He brings down Joe Burrow, officially making the biggest play of his career.

Myles Garrett broke the single season sack record.

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I remember watching Garrett get drafted. Being a massive Cleveland Browns fan since I was seven, I sat down on my couch in my Cleveland jersey to see who the Browns would take with the top pick of the 2017 draft. And to the surprise of no one, that pick was Garrett. I was excited, to say the least. I knew that this pick alone wasn’t going to be the one off fix to one of the losingest franchises in NFL history, but we finally had someone who could possibly be a star player. 

Garrett was hurt for about a quarter of that first season. It took a few games before we got to see our No. 1 pick prove himself to be worthy, but that moment came in week 5 of that 2017 season against the Jets. Garrett played his first NFL snap on a 3rd down and 5, and everyone was restless to see what this man, who was widely called a generational talent, would do. The ball was snapped, Garrett shed two blocks like he was swatting flies, and got to the quarterback in a flash. He recorded a sack on his first ever play. He soon followed that up with another sack late in the second quarter, and Browns fans were ecstatic. Myles Garrett was exactly who we hoped he would be in the NFL. 

Garrett had a very solid rookie season, totaling seven sacks in only 11 games. But despite this, the Browns would not win a single game in 2017. They became only the second NFL team to go 0-16, and needless to say, this was a hard time to be a Browns fan. Heartbreaking loss after heartbreaking loss, over and over, every single Sunday. But the raw talent shown by Garrett in this season stood as a bright spot for the franchise. When everything else was dark, we could always look at 95 for a glimmer of hope. 

Years have passed since that season. The Browns in this time have, well, they’ve been the Browns. Only two winning seasons in those 7 years despite having a star studded roster capable of deep playoff runs. But just like he was in his rookie season, Garrett continued to be a figure of hope for the team. Whether his surrounding organization was good or bad, he’s been here through it all. But going into this 2025 season there were questions about his future in Cleveland, as Garrett requested a trade. 

After 8 years, Garrett was tired of being a generational talent on an otherwise failing team. In his statement in February 2025, he said “The goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton, it has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl.” The reactions from Browns fans were not what you would expect. Obviously, having your star player come out and say he has zero faith in the franchise’s ability to win was nothing short of a punch in the gut, but it wasn’t anything we didn’t know. Everyone knew that this team didn’t really deserve a player as talented as Garrett. We all knew as much as he did that he was wasting his career here. 

It was a story told many times before, a generational talent in the NFL who was held back by the team surrounding him. Barry Sanders, Calvin Johnson, even Joe Thomas, another former Browns player are all Hall of Fame players that never won championships, not because of personal talent, but because of who they played for. And it looked like if Garrett remained here in Cleveland, he would join this club. A tragic career of a legendary talent whose career is defined not by success, but instead defined by the question, “what if?” 

Despite all of this, he still signed a 4-year, $160 million contract to stay with Cleveland, which many thought to be frankly bizarre. To be as vehemently against staying as he was, just for all those feelings to vanish once the cash was shown to him, many wondered why he took this deal, and others wondered if this meant his heart wouldn’t be in it this season. If the money that made him stay on a team that he didn’t want to play for robbed him of the passion of the game he was known for. But these questions would be answered in a dramatic fashion in the coming season. 

It became evident early on that the 2025 Cleveland Browns were not a winning football team, primarily due to their offense. An offense so abysmal that it would take them seven weeks to score more than 20 points in a game. But this team was bizarre in the fact that despite having the single worst offense in the NFL, they would have the No. 1 ranked defense in the league for a majority of the season, ending the year with the 4th fewest yards allowed and 3rd most sacks among all NFL teams. And if you were to ask anyone why this defense was as good as it was, the answer would be Garrett. Despite concerns about willingness to perform when he signed his massive contract, he seemed to be having one of the best seasons of his career. Coming into Week 8 against the Patriots, he had racked up 5 sacks on the season. But Garrett would double that number in a single game. 

In a single game against the Patriots, Garrett would sack Drake Maye five times, a remarkable feat that has only been achieved 19 times. Despite Garrett's success, the Cleveland Browns would lose 32-13. Before this game, only three players have recorded five or more sacks in a game and lost. And all of these losses have been by three points or less. On this day, the Cleveland Browns lost by 19 points, with the Patriots gaining nearly twice as many total yards as the Browns did, despite anything Garrett did. Near the end of the game, Garrett was seen slamming his helmet on the ground in frustration, and sitting near the end of the bench, completely by himself. After a career game, he could do nothing to propel his team to victory. 

This was the point where Browns fans were starting to give up on their team being a contender this season. Nothing was going right for us. Our offense was an absolute mess, with players that people had a lot of hope for, such as Jerry Jeudy and Dillon Gabriel, looking awful. But we were given something to look forward to now. Because after this game, talk of Garrett potentially getting the NFL single season sack record began getting louder, and he wouldn’t give these conversations a reason to quiet. Because over the next few weeks, the number just kept rising -- a sack against the Jets, four against the Ravens, and three against the Raiders, in a game where the entire team totaled 10 sacks. This meant that Garrett had racked up 13 sacks in four games. Thirteen  sacks in an entire season would be enough to get most players a Pro Bowl, or maybe even All-Pro honors. Garrett was able to do it in four games. 

At this point, everyone was talking about Garrett and the sack record. It stood at 22.5 sacks, set by Michael Strahan of the New York Giants in 2001, and tied by Pittsburgh Steelers' TJ Watt in 2021. Garrett was at 18 sacks with six games to go. It looked like he was going to shatter the record. This season, opposing teams had a fear of Garrett to a point that I have never seen. For example, in their Week 3 game against Green Bay, Garrett got past the Packers left tackle, and instead of chasing after Garrett, he screamed at his quarterback to run away. Ahead of Cleveland’s week 13 against San Francisco, Trent Williams, one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL, was asked by an interviewer whether he has lost sleep over Garrett. Initially he said, “Not yet, but I’m sure I will soon.” Then he thought about it a second, and said “Nah I lied. I have.” Opposing offenses dreaded seeing Garrett line up across from them, and no one can blame them.

Over his next four games, Garrett would average a sack a game, getting himself to 22 on the season. With the record at 22.5, he only needed a single sack to break the record. No one cared about this team winning anymore. At this point, we were 3-12. It had been an awful season for Cleveland football, and the team had nothing to play for at this point. But the fans kept watching. Everyone wanted to see Garrett get the sack record. 

Cleveland’s week 17 game against their ultimate rival, the Steelers, was a bizarre one. Now, the Browns didn’t have anything to play for, but the Steelers did. They were in a neck and neck battle with the Baltimore Ravens to win the AFC North and go to the playoffs. If they won this game against Cleveland, they would secure their playoff spot and knock the Ravens out of the playoffs. If they lost, their week 18 game against Baltimore would decide who took the AFC North. So Pittsburgh had a lot on the line here. But playing against a team with three wins who didn’t have anything to play for except a single player’s hunt for an NFL record, it seemed like it would be an easy win for them. 

The game was a tough defensive battle. Both teams struggled to score throughout, but something was off about the Steelers. Watching the game, I remember seeing a lot of bizarre playcalls on the Steelers offense. A ton of quick checkdowns, run plays, and just a lot of conservative play was leading them to scoring very little in this game. I remember seeing them throw a quick checkdown a few yards into the backfield on a 3rd down and long, and I began thinking, are they prioritizing keeping Garrett away from the sack record over winning this game? It seemed crazy, but earlier that week I had heard rumors saying that the Steelers would do anything, like take penalties, to keep Garrett from getting the final sack he needed. I texted my friend, a Ravens fan watching the game since his season depended on the Browns winning, and he said the same thing. And a lot of other people online did, too. The Browns would win 13-6, and keep the Steelers from clinching a playoff spot, but Garrett didn’t get the final sack. He still had one more game to do it, but it was interesting how it seemed the Steelers went out of their way to avoid a single season record being set by a rival player, to the point where they end up losing a crucial game. 

Garrett had only one more week to get the sack record. And against the Bengals, he would take a while before he got it with five minutes left in the game. An historic season from Garrett was complete; he took down an almost 25 year old record. For his record breaking season, Garrett would win Defensive Player of the Year at the NFL Honors by unanimous vote, becoming only the second player in NFL history to do so.

Watching this season from him as a diehard Browns fan was special to me, and a lot of other Browns fans, too. Yes, every other part of the season was nothing short of an utter train wreck, as we had three different quarterbacks who all underperformed (Yes, Shadeur Sanders included), our wide receivers weren’t giving them any help, along with questionable coaching decisions from head coach Kevin Stefanski, who was fired the day after the last game of the season. 

Through it all, Myles Garrett played his heart out. Even though it didn’t seem like many people around him were doing the same, he showed up every Sunday and played each game like it was his last. And because of this, Browns fans still had something to look forward to on Sunday. Something we knew we could depend on in a season of absolute chaos. Someone to remind us why we love Cleveland Browns football.

​A light in the darkness.

And his name is Myles Garrett.

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