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Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett said he’s just looking for “opportunities” and making no assumptions about Sunday’s game against the 1-11 Tennessee Titans.
But with Garrett four sacks short of breaking the NFL’s single-season record of 22.5, opportunity certainly awaits.
Nobody’s been sacked more this season than Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward at 48. Garrett already has two games of at least four sacks this season and, with 19, he’s having the most prolific pass-rushing season through 13 games since Aldon Smith had 19.5 in 2012.
Garrett won’t say he plans to break and celebrate the record currently shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt in his home stadium Sunday afternoon. But amid a run of 14 sacks over his last five games, he’s long believed that breaking the record is a foregone conclusion.
“I don’t even think about (the record) as a want — I just think about it as something that I’m going to knock down,” Garrett said. “It’s already been written in my mind that it’s going (down). It’s just how far I’m going to take it.”
Last week, we found out how far Garrett aspires to take it when he wrote “25” on his wrist tape. He said he’s envisioned posting a 25-sack season since 2023, when he won his first Defensive Player of the Year award and had 14 sacks for a Browns team that won 11 games and went to the playoffs.
This year’s Browns team is 3-9, but Garrett has continued to produce. His four-sack game versus the Baltimore Ravens last month and five-sack game in New England in late October both came in losses. Garrett had one sack in last week’s 26-8 home loss to San Francisco.
“If I get the record, I want it to be in a win,” Garrett said. “And whatever it takes, if I get (half a sack) or one, or if I get none and we win, I’m just glad to have a win. I like to see the smile on the guys’ faces after a win, that kind of pressure leaving their shoulders.
“I feel like there’s so much pressure to win right now, and as there should be. There should be urgency, and guys expecting to win. And I think the sacks help that, so I give that everything I can and settle with the result.”
Earlier this week, Garrett was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Month for November. Lawrence Taylor (1986) is the only player with four three-sack games in a season since the NFL officially recognized sacks as a stat in 1982. Garrett can match that Sunday with a three-sack game. Garrett has eight three-sack games in his career.
Earlier this season, Garrett passed Taylor to become the first player with at least 12 sacks in six consecutive seasons. With 121.5 sacks in 129 career games, Garrett holds the NFL record for most sacks recorded before a player’s 30th birthday. Reggie White was the previous record-holder at 108.
Garrett, who turns 30 later this month, is just the third player in NFL history to have 16 or more sacks in three different seasons, joining J.J. Watt and White. Garrett broke his previous franchise record of 16 sacks (2021 and 2022) during his three-sack game versus the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 12.
