CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) – Myles Garrett and the Browns didn’t win a single game his first season in the NFL.
In his fourth year, he will play in his first ever playoff game.
“It is going to be a weight off my shoulders really to finally get here,” Garrett said. “I am going to play like it is my last. It could be the very last opportunity I get. Not saying it will be because of our success, but you never know what is in your future. You never know what could happen in the world or to us individually or to our family.
“I am going to play like my hair is on fire and like I will never get another chance at it.”
From a big picture view, the arrow is pointing straight up, and the sky is the ceiling for the Browns, who racked up 11 wins, most for the franchise in the expansion era and since an 11-5 finish in 1994, the last season Cleveland advanced in the playoffs.
But to Garrett’s point, tomorrow is not promised. Neither is next year.
Just ask the 2003 or 2008 Browns, who were coming off a 9-7 playoff season and a 10-6 finish the year before respectively.
It took years and a multitude of coaches, GMs and quarterbacks for the franchise to recover.
Steelers receiver Juju Smith Shuster threw shade at the Browns this week calling them a bunch of “gray faces” – a Mike Tomlin term he uses with his team regularly, with “a couple of good players.”
Garrett offered a “no comment” when asked to respond to Smith-Schuster’s assertion that they’re still the same ol’ Browns.
“We will have to prove it when we see them on Sunday,” Garrett said.
Even with last week’s 24-22 win by the Browns to clinch their first playoff berth since 2002, the Steelers own the Browns. They’re 36-8-1, including a 36-33 come-from-behind Wild Card Victory in January 2003, since 1999 against Cleveland.
The Browns have lost 17 straight at Heinz Field and Ben Roethlisberger is an astounding 23-2-1 against the team that passed on him in the 2004 NFL Draft.
None of that matters come Sunday night at 8:15 regardless of how high the deck is stacked against the Browns.
“We have been in that role all year,” Garrett said. “We have been in that role since I have been here. Nothing has changed. Our backs are against the wall, and we are going to fight out of it and fight off of it.”
Cleveland will be without Pro Bowl and All Pro left guard Joel Bitonio, defensive end Olivier Vernon, cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Kevin Johnson as well as receiver KhaDarel Hodge due to injury or COVID-19.
“It is a hell of a challenge,” Garrett said. “This is what we have all been looking forward to and I know I have been looking forward to it myself. The Steelers and the Browns have had history against each other so now, it is just up to us to step up to the plate. They have to show up and play just like we do.
“Nothing is being taken for granted and nothing is going to be given to them. Anything we get, we are going to have to take.”
Garrett missed two games this season after contracting COVID-19. He labored the last five games despite still registering three sacks, five QB hits and five tackles for loss but the All Pro and Pro Bowl defensive end is feeling like himself just in time for January football.
“You will be able to see it on Sunday that I look like I did at the beginning of the season,” Garrett said.