BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The days of the dynamic duo of Jadeveon Clowney and Myles Garrett appear to have come to an abrupt end.
Clowney blasted the Browns Thursday, and he was sent home before practice Friday. Clowney likely won’t play Sunday although head coach Kevin Stefanski refused to say what he has decided to do.
At the heart of Clowney’s airing of grievances was what he perceived to be preferential treatment and game planning for Myles Garrett at his and the team’s expense.
“I don't take his comments personally and it's just the nature of the beast,” Garrett said Friday.
When asked how he felt about the way Clowney handled his frustration, Garrett channeled his inner Mike Tomlin.
“We just want volunteers, not hostages,” Garrett said.
Garrett also expressed regret that things reached the point they have.
“He's my brother, he's my teammate and I wish we could have talked about this man-to-man and to us as coaches as well,” Garrett said. “Could have sat us all down and had just a conversation and that would've probably been the way I would've handled it. But hindsight is 20/20.
“He's feeling a lot of emotion towards what has been a season of ups and downs and there's no perfect way to handle things. But I wish he would've handled a little bit differently.”
Garrett is the Browns best defensive lineman and pass rusher. It would be coaching malpractice not to find the most favorable matchup for him. But Garret is also one of the most double-teamed players in the league, so it’s hard to see much validation in Clowney’s argument.
“If I'm the most double-teamed guy, it's hard to say I'm getting the most favorable matchups,” Garrett said. “But I mean, the design is to test both tackles, try to get inside when the call demands it or when we have the opportunity on third-and-long, and it's all depending on the third money downs and what position we're in, whether it's short or medium or long.
And there were some opportunities where I was able to move across the line and he would move across the line and we had some success and then times where I stayed where I was at and some success.
“It's a little confusing but, I mean, we could have had clarity if he, you know, he just talked to us.”
Last season, Garrett and Clowney combined for 25 sacks – a single-season team record 16 for Garrett and nine for Clowney, but this year the dynamic duo has failed to replicate that success.
Garrett, who is sitting on 14.5 sacks, was named a Pro Bowler for the fourth time while Clowney has battled an ankle injury as well as a concussion and produced just two.
“I knew he was frustrated,” Garrett said. “We’ve all been frustrated with not winning and I know he wants to produce more. Hell, I want to produce more. We all want to do more. You always feel like you can do more, especially when you're not winning and everyone feels that. When you come in here and the result stays the same or you give up one that you feel like you could have gotten, so everyone has that sense of disappointment and regret for some plays and everyone handles it a different way.”
The last straw for Clowney apparently came when he was asked to move to the left side October 23 in Baltimore.
Garrett was disappointed to learn that Clowney used the guise of an injury to just play third downs in that 23-20 loss.
“I want someone who's here to win games, who's going to give his all at all times, not just when he's feeling good or he's not,” Garrett said. “And I think a lot of the times he's definitely brought that. I think the Ravens game is really an outlier for him and I wish him the best, whatever happens, if he stays here or not. I mean if he does stay here, you know, we all have to come to an agreement, an understanding about how the situation's going to be across the line and how we can help each other and build up each other.”
Garrett used a familiar word when asked how to prevent issues like this from boiling over the way they seem to rather consistently within the locker room.
“There's gotta be better communication across the board and there's gotta be a steady dose of leadership from the top down and we've gotta squash all this before it comes to a head like this,” Garrett said. “And there shouldn't be a lot of instances where stuff like this happens, especially with this group of guys, how talented we are and the level of leadership that we do have here from all across the board.”