Cleveland Browns: Maximizing Myles Garrett should mean moving him

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett is ready to have a monster season, but it's important that the coaching staff does their part to maximize him by moving him to the opponent's weakness as often as possible.

There's every reason to be excited about Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett as he heads into his third year in the league. The additions of Olivier Vernon and Sheldon Richardson as his own development, but the biggest may well be moving him up and down the defensive line, especially playing inside as a defensive tackle in passing situations.

One of the most bizarre parts of Gregg Williams running the defense the past two seasons is that from year one to year two, Garrett was moved around on the defensive line less. With rare exception, Garrett was reliably at right defensive end.

It's far easier to move Garrett around when there's more talent overall on the line, but after recording a sack on his first ever snap in the NFL from the 3-tech, it's incredibly odd that they didn't move him around as much as possible to exploit the weakest matchups.

One of the benefits of adding Vernon while also having Genard Avery in the fold is that if Garrett does line up on the interior, Vernon and Avery can rush from the edges giving them three very capable pass rushers that can disrupt the quarterback. It forces the opponent to do far more in terms of protecting their quarterback and offensive linemen have to prepare for the mere possibility that Garrett will line up across from them.

And for quarterbacks, it's difficult not to be at least conscious of all that speed on the field at once, because they can potentially get drilled from multiple angles and it's difficult to imagine they aren't locating Garrett as they get ready to set the play every time.

With rare exception, there are few teams that are truly balanced on their offensive lines. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles might have the best cases in the league, but every other team likely has a weakness they are trying to cover up. And even in the case of the Steelers, Garrett has had a ton of success, so varying up where he's coming from still adds to the level of stress and creates more opportunities to make an impact.

Garrett's usage in training camp, the preseason and into the regular season will be one of the more interesting thing to watch on the defense this year as the defensive staff is hopefully adept enough to squeeze every bit of talent out of one of the best defensive linemen in the league. If they can, Garrett has a chance to be the best defensive player in the league this year.