Cleveland Browns: 5 questions surrounding key players

Can Myles Garrett play a full, consistent season?

While Browns fans are hyped for Myles Garrett, Garrett isn’t exactly a problem-less player. On-field issues before the helmet-incident were already starting to pile up. Calls of him being a dirty player by those he played against started to gain traction throughout the season that eventually culminated in him braining Mason Rudolph.

Garrett has also had injury issues. Issues with his knee and ankles, as well as a history of concussions are scattered across his last year in college and his first year in the pros. While he hasn’t missed a game since his rookie season due to injuries, that’s really only one entire season of games worth of evidence to point to. For all we know, week 11 of the 2019 season could’ve seen him get hurt. We’ll never know.

All we know is that he’s had issues with his legs before.

Garett had a great 2018. Yet, in both 2017 and 2019, Garrett’s productivity was streaky. In 2017 he racked up four sacks in his first three professional games. An incredible stat. Two of those games he barely played any snaps either. Yet, his last three sacks came across the last eight weeks, all with, at times, triple the number of snaps played in a game. One would imagine more opportunities would provide more production. He didn’t make the defense better, in fact in a lot of those games the team got blown out.

Then in 2019, before the suspension, Garrett again bunched up sacks in his first three games. This time getting six sacks in three games to start the season. Then he only had four more sacks the rest of the seven games he played. He was more effective in that stretch overall than he was in 2017, but considering the team is willing to make him the highest-paid defensive player in the league, shouldn’t consistency and longevity be important?

Think about this, Jadeveon Clowney can’t get $20 million a year all because he’s not getting sacks. He’s getting pressure and has proven to be a good run stuffer, something Garrett is not, but he can’t get paid. Yet, Garrett will get paid (expectedly) $22 million (or more) a year for bunching up sacks over the course of a few games, and then disappearing the rest of the season?

Garrett needs to do more than 30 tackles and 10 sacks. He can’t do that if he’s constantly off the field, however.