Myles Garrett had a game-saving sack but the criticisms against him are valid and fair

Absolving subpar play from Myles Garrett doesn’t help anyone.

Myles Garrett is an advanced analytic geek’s dream player. He scores so well in all the stats that almost matter. Where he doesn’t do so well is his actual impact on the field of play. Garrett is a great pass rusher. That should never be in doubt, but to say he’s a consistent presence that creates an impact on every play just wouldn’t be true.

Now, some of the issues with Garrett is his lofty contract, and that’s because the NFL is constantly glorying certain things every few years. The current hotness on defense is the pass rusher. Guys are making gobs of money to influence the game on a regular basis. It’s unfair to actually expect Garrett to make an impact on every play.

No one does that. So no one should expect four or five sacks a game from Garrett. Yet, Garrett has proven time and time again that while he’s capable of the big play when the quarterback is stepping back to pass, he has proven to be a liability when the team runs the ball. Yes, the Buccaneers had to double-team Garrett a few times to keep Tom Brady upright, but they also ran the ball right at him with incredible effectiveness. While fans of Garrett may not like to hear this, but playing the run is just as important as playing the pass, and Garrett has proven to be not very good against the run.

Due to that, if he’s not making an impact against the passing attack, he normally doesn’t make an impact at all. And it’s not even that he’s an average run-stopper, according to PFF, he’s actually quite a bad one. He’s grading out currently at just 60.1. We’re told every day that Garrett is a generational talent, yet when compared to other generational talents like Aaron Donald, Garrett doesn’t stack up.

This is the first season Donald isn’t graded out at 85 or higher against the run, and even then, he’s still leagues better than Garrett at a score of 75.6. You might think it’s unfair to compare Garrett to Donald, but considering how close they are in regard to their contracts, it’s a fair comparison.

Garrett is a good player, none of this should be misconstrued against that belief. What needs to be stated is that Garrett isn’t as good as many wish he was. If he’s not going one on one with a tackle on a five-step drop, he makes next to no impact on a game. That’s the reality of having him on your team.

One of the biggest criticisms against him is his lack of big-time plays when the game is on the line, a fair complaint. Browns writer Ben Axelrod took to Twitter to try and make one play change the narrative by saying;

Yet, does one play erase all of the other examples of him not doing that? No, it does not.

Myles Garrett is a franchise great but he’s not living up to his contract

In 2002, if you had 10 sacks in a season, you had a good season. We’re no longer in that era. When guys like T.J. Watt can rack up 22 sacks in a season, and 17 players in 2021 can rack up double-digit sacks in a year, the expectations have changed.

Guys like Garrett have to be better more often than not. So whether it’s him just being bad at the run game or whether he’s taking the run plays off, that has to come to an end because half of the reason the Browns’ run defense has been so bad is that no team respects Garrett enough to stop them.

Had the Buccaneers not fallen into the pass-happy attack they’re known for under Todd Bowles and actually kept running the ball at Garrett, this would’ve been a vastly different game. Yes, Garrett had a major sack when the team absolutely needed it. That is a fantastic moment.

Yet, there were nearly five “quarters” of play where he didn’t make that play in this game. Five quarters were he was average, at best. Most of the time he went one on one with left tackle Donovan Smith, and Garrett was barely seen until the fourth quarter. You’d think due to Smith’s score by PFF, that Garrett had four sacks. He didn’t, he had 1.5. That was his entire impact on the game, 1.5 sacks across 70 minutes of action.

Garrett gets a pass because PFF overvalues sacks and pass rushing as a whole, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that when a team wants to, they can absolutely bully Garrett at the point of attack.

Yes, Garrett is a vital piece of the defense, no doubt about that but let’s not pretend that he’s a perfect player with no holes in his game. If he’s going to be the guy fans think he is, he has to be impactful against both the pass and the run.

Not just one and not just when he feels like it.