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Browns Have Officially Tanked Myles Garrett's DPOY Chances

Myles Garrett has fallen out of the Defensive Player of the Year race, and it's the Browns organization's fault.

By Jason Schandl

Nov 3, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) walks off the field after the Browns lost to the Los Angeles Chargers at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Nov 3, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) walks off the field after the Browns lost to the Los Angeles Chargers at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
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It's no secret that the NFL's season-long awards don't always go to the most deserving player. National media attention matters a lot. The team around a player matters a lot. And honestly, it seems like people sometimes get tired of seeing the same player win again and again.

If Defensive Player of the Year went to the best defensive player in the NFL every single year, Myles Garrett would have won it a heck of a lot more than one time.

Garrett did at least finally get the recognition he deserves with his win in 2023, but 2024 has been more of the same. He has a very legitimate claim to being the best and most impactful defensive player in the NFL, but he has somehow fallen completely out of the conversation for the award. And honestly, the blame lands squarely on the Cleveland Browns organization.

Myles Garrett Defensive Player of the Year Odds Highlight Browns Dysfunction

You probably don't need convincing that Garrett, at the very least, belongs in the conversation for the award, so we'll get to his case in a bit. But first, just check out the odds for the award from FanDuel Sportsbook:

  • T.J. Watt (-220)
  • Patrick Surtain (+380)
  • Nik Bonitto (+1800)
  • Will Anderson Jr. (+2500)
  • Andrew Van Ginkel (+2900)
  • Xavier McKinney (+2900)
  • Danielle Hunter (+2900)
  • Jonathan Greenard (+3000)
  • Trey Hendrickson (+3000)
  • Myles Garrett (+3300)

Garrett ranks 10th — just a couple of weeks after still being in the top three of the odds.

Is it a coincidence that his odds have tanked so significantly over the past few weeks? After Dorian Thompson-Robinson led the Browns to a horrendous 24-6 blowout loss to the Bengals and still got the coaching staff's support as the QB1 for the rest of the year? Considering that, per PFF, the last two weeks have included Garretts' third and fifth-best games of the season, I don't think so.

Obviously, the betting markets don't vote for the award, so we can't definitively say he's not being considered anymore. But if you follow the national conversation on Twitter and look at how accurate the odds for these awards tend to be by the final weeks of the regular season, you'll know it's not a stretch to consider them pretty representative of how award voting will go.

And Garrett's case for the award is as obvious as ever. He's not going to lead the league in sacks: in part because he's double-teamed more than any other defender in the league, and in part because Browns opponents don't have to throw all that much since they're typically playing with a lead.

But if you go even slightly beyond the box score, it almost doesn't matter how you measure a player's quality — Garrett is inarguably in the conversation for the best defensive player. The eye test is obvious — two or even three blockers aren't enough to stop him from creating havoc in opponents' backfields.

PFF has Garrett as their second-best graded defender this season, trailing only Aidan Hutchinson (who isn't in the DPoY conversation because injuries cut his season short at 5 games). For the fourth straight year, they have him graded ahead of T.J. Watt, who is somehow a huge favorite to win his second DPoY award now.

ESPN's pass-rush win rate stat makes Garrett look maybe even better: he's the league leader in both pressures and win rate even though he's also likely to finish as the leader in double team rate.

At this point, how can you blame Garrett for getting impatient with the Browns? Not only is he playing his prime years without a chance at winning a Super Bowl, but the organization around him has cost him not only the awards themselves but the additional money in endorsements and, more importantly, the lasting legacy in NFL history that he truly deserves,

It would sting to see Garrett leave Cleveland, for sure. But if that's what he needs to do, it would be hard for any Browns fan to begrudge him at this point.

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