BEREA, Ohio — Getting to 100 career sacks has gone a little slower than Browns pass rusher Myles Garrett hoped it would.
“Absolutely,” he said on Friday. “I mean, COVID (in 2020). Getting suspended in 2019, getting hurt in 2017. I think all those things led to me being a little bit slow on getting there. Then there was some games I wish I could have back and some plays I wish I had back along the way.
“But I feel like I have a lot of time to speed up the numbers that I have now, the rate that I’m at now, just look at it as a challenge. There’s some guys ahead of me and I want to pass up everybody at the end of the day.”
As it stands, if Garrett collects the half a sack he needs to reach the milestone on Sunday, he’ll join some elite company with how quickly he attains it.
He can become the fifth player since 1982 with at least 100 sacks in his first eight career seasons, joining Reggie White (124), DeMarcus Ware (111), Jared Allen (105) and T.J. Watt (104). White and Ware are in the Hall of Fame.
In the end, the timing probably couldn’t have worked out better for Garrett. He has a chance to log sack No. 100 against quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a player who, when all is said and done, could be in the discussion for the greatest of all time, and the player taken nine spots after Garrett went No. 1 overall in the 2017 draft.
That’s not a bad highlight to have on your resume.
“It would’ve been fun to get it last week because I had a chance to (against the Steelers),” Garrett said. “I think it’s special regardless of who it’s against.”
Garrett had one sack last week in Pittsburgh to get to 99.5 career sacks. If it was slow getting here overall, it has been a sprint recently. He broke a four-game sackless streak in Week 9 by getting three sacks in four plays against the Chargers. He has seven sacks in his last five games, including three in the first half against Russell Wilson and the Steelers on Thursday Night Football in 12.
Even without 100 sacks, it’s not hard to come up with accolades for the defending Defensive Player of the Year. His 11 sacks this season means he now has seven consecutive years with double digits, joining White (eight), Von Miller (seven) and Ware (seven) as the fourth player since 1982 to reach 10 sacks in seven-or-more of his first eight seasons.
He needs three more to become the first player since 1982 to reach 14 sacks in four consecutive seasons.
If he sacks Mahomes on Sunday, he would join former Giants pass rusher Lawrence Taylor as the second player since 1982 to reach 12 sacks in five consecutive seasons.
In other words, he’s been pretty good.
Meanwhile, Mahomes has ascended to the most-feared quarterback in football, a three-time Super Bowl champion who is riding in the fast lane up the list of best quarterbacks ever.
Browns pass rusher Myles Garrett will spend Sunday chasing his 100th sack and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
With everything Mahomes has accomplished, the fact that few people question the Browns’ decision to take Garrett No. 1 instead of Mahomes in 2017 speaks to how great Garrett has been, even if he hasn’t had the team success Mahomes has had.
“Comparison is the thief of joy,” Garrett said, “so I don’t compare myself to Patrick. Not in team success or position-wise. I mean at the end of the day he’s doing well on his team and I want to continue to do well on my team and this year’s not the one for us as currently, but there’s no reason why we can’t leave off on a great note going 4-0 in these last four.”
For the Browns to start a 4-0 run to finish the season, Garrett will have to have a big impact on Sunday. He has sacked Mahomes in both of their regular season meetings in 2018 and 2021.
It will help this year that Mahomes has been sacked more already this season, 35 times, than he has in any other season in his career. It doesn’t mean he’s easy to bring down.
“He’s always more elusive than you give him credit for and he has very good balance,” Garrett said. “He doesn’t go down easily, and even when he does, his eyes are always looking downfield. He’s always looking to make that next play. That’s really the tough part about it. He’s always looking down the field. He’s unflappable, really, when the rush is coming and he’s not deterred too much about pressure from the middle, from the edges.
“So just have to continue to rush him and bat balls down. I think that’s the only thing that really gets to him is when the balls get batted down early and often. So I think that’s where we can really start to shake him.”
It will help, too, that Chiefs left tackle D.J. Humphries is doubtful for the game with a hamstring injury. Does Garrett think that uncertainty could mean a big week for him?
“I think that every week,” he said.
Mahomes knows Garrett will be a handful for him and his team.
“I think you have to prepare for it as an entire offense. You have to give him different looks,” Mahomes told reporters this week. “You can’t let him just pass rush over and over again. I mean, he won Defensive Player of the Year for a reason, man. He’s going to win a lot of those matchups and so we’ll throw him changeups, we’ll throw him different pitches that he can hopefully keep his mind racing but at the end of the day, he’s going to make plays happen. When he starts to win reps or win certain plays, you have to not make them negative plays, get rid of the football, even if that’s throwing it away and live to play another play.”
If Garrett hits the 100-sack milestone on Sunday, he downplayed what it would mean to get it against Mahomes, but it would have to mean something a little bit more special if he does it against his draft classmate who he’ll join one day in Canton.
“He’s definitely one of the very best that we’ve ever seen, especially at that position,” Garrett said. “So, I mean, it’d be nice to get that one.”
Garrett has plans to make sure he has the ball to remember it, too.
“Hopefully I can take the ball from him on the play,” he said, “and I don’t have to get it from him after.”
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