CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – In the span of mere seconds last November Myles Garrett lost his cool, and forever altered his reputation.
As he makes his return to the field for the first time since that ugly incident, Garrett hopes to put the incident in the rear-view mirror and reestablish himself as one of the league’s elite players.
The Browns are counting on it too after giving him a five-year, $125 million contract extension in July.
“Just excited. This is a brand new season for me,” Garrett said during a Zoom video conference with reporters Friday. “A blessing to be out there. I feel like every guy feels like that, especially with COVID and what is going on in the world, not knowing if there would be a season in general. We are all just excited to be out there and play the game that we love.”
The video and images of Garrett ripping the helmet off Mason Rudolph and then clubbing the Steelers’ quarterback in the head with it are seared in everyone’s memory and will be replayed for years to come.
Garrett doesn’t plan to waste time or energy worrying about how he’s perceived.
“Either they will see eventually [who I really am] or they will keep on hating,” Garrett said. “That is just a part of life. When you are successful, you are going to have people who drag your hate on you. They will recognize you for your game or what you do outside of it, or they just do not matter.”
The two-time defending divisional champion Ravens present quite the challenge for Garrett and the Browns to kick off the 2020 season, and they saw what everyone else did last November.
It remains to be seen if Baltimore plans to hold it against him.
“That is up to them,” Garrett said. “I am not coming in thinking they are going to do that, and I am not going to change my game according to that. I am just going to play by the rules and be where I am supposed to be.”
Garrett told Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com earlier this week he contemplated retirement but was reluctant to talk about the incident or his comments when asked Friday.
“I left it open-ended to leave it open-ended,” Garrett said.
Ask anyone within the Browns about Garett and you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone with a bad word to say about the 2017 No. 1 overall pick. It’s why executive vice president of football operations and general manager Andrew Berry didn’t hesitate to make such a big commitment to him.
Garrett’s talent as a player is undeniable. His 30.5 sacks, which are a franchise record for a defender through his first three seasons speak to that.
His generosity and desire to help others off the field don’t garner headlines but speaks to who he is as a man. A member of the Browns social justice committee and captain of NFL Waterboys, which provides clean water to communities in need, Garrett also donated money to the families of retired St. Louis police captain David Dorn and Louisville chef David McAtee, who were shot and killed.
“Very impressed by Myles the person. Very impressed by Myles the player,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “It takes about two seconds to see him get in his stance and come off the ball to come away very impressed. I have had some really good conversations with Myles over the last few months. I just think he is a mindful person, I think he has a lot of very strong opinions and he comes at it from a place of he is open. I think we have just had some really cool talks. He is a mindful guy. The team really responds to him because he is a great player, but he also wants this so bad and I think the team really responds to that.”
On the field, Garrett is expected to pick up where he left off when he had 10.0 sacks in 10 games before he was suspended.
A year ago, Jackson threw 36 touchdowns and ran for over 1,200 yards for the Ravens to win his first NFL MVP award.
“Anybody who has seen the film knows why he is so hard to defend,” Garrett said. “The man runs like a 4.3. He is elusive as anybody in the league.
“If he is having a good day throwing the ball, he is very hard to stop. We have to just make it hard on him, keep him corralled and not give him any easy targets.”
How to do it effectively might be the million-dollar question.
“You have to aggressively contain him,” Garrett said. “MVP. It is tough for everybody to do, but we are up for the test. To his credit, he is good at what he does. They are good at what they do. So we have to just challenge them in every spot and make it hard to open up the playbook and try and keep them one-dimensional.”
The indications coming out of Baltimore is that Jackson has only gotten better but Garrett believes he’s up to the challenge.
“I am going go out there prepared for a Lamar 2.0,” Garrett said. “If he is coming out faster or with a better arm, we just have to play him like we would last year. Play him as best we did and to the best of our ability. We can’t do anything more than that. If he comes out better and he is making some throws that we have not or seen doing some things that we have not seen, we just have to adjust on the fly.”
