Myles Garrett's Impact In Context

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett is the favorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award to this point in the season because of his impact in helping the Browns to achieve a 4-1 record. To understand just how good he's been, it has to be measured against other teams.

Understanding the impact of Cleveland Browns pass rusher Myles Garrett requires weighing his individual contributions causing turnovers against all 32 teams in the league.

Myles Garrett is credited with causing turnovers on eight plays this season. He has three strip sacks and has recovered one fumble he didn't cause. His pressure has also helped caused opposing quarterbacks to throw four interceptions.

That doesn't even account for the safety he caused against the Indianapolis Colts via penalty, which is a turnover in its own right. It just happens to come with two points and a punt.

To put Garrett's impact into context, only nine other teams have even caused eight takeaways through five weeks into the season. That means Garrett has generated more turnovers than 22 NFL teams, including their week six opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers. They have seven takeaways, though they have played one fewer game than the rest of the league.

In the AFC North, only the Baltimore Ravens have caused more turnovers than Garrett.

Basically, however great most people think Garrett is... he's better.

Consider the fact that Garrett had a sack, caused a safety and his pressure contributed to the interception by Sheldrick Redwine and this is how Frank Reich described Garrett's impact in the post game press conference.

“Yeah, he showed up. He is a great player. We can’t say, ‘Well, he had one sack and we did a good job on him.’ We chipped him. He made some plays. He applied so pressure, but he didn’t, in my opinion – you guys may disagree – obviously the sack was a huge play in the game – but it’s not like when you see a defensive guy take over a game and have three sacks, I didn’t feel it was that game. I thought La’Raven (Clark) came in and did a good job. I thought our tight ends and backs did a fairly good job. He is a great player, and we knew he would still get some pressure. I thought Philip hung in there well and in some ways. In some ways offensively, it was OK. We just can’t turn the ball over and we can’t coach and play and spot a good team points. That is essentially what we did.”

If Myles Garrett didn't take over a game in which he had a sack, contributed to an interception and caused a safety, what is he going to do in the game he does?

The Browns are leading the league in takeaways with 12. And with a +6 turnover differential, which is second in the league behind the Tennessee Titans with +8, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Browns (or Titans) are winning and how Garrett is having a direct impact.

Whether it was the NFL Draft or even his first few seasons with the Browns, Garrett was criticized either because he wasn't going to win games by himself or didn't win games by himself based on the standings when the Browns went 0-16, as if that was an accurate measure of his value. And that was underselling just how much he was doing. In 2018 against the Steelers in the opener with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback, Garrett willed the Browns into a tie with a pair of sacks and forced fumbles. 

In 2020, he's doing it on an almost weekly basis. This is why he's not only the favorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year award so far, but he's been mentioned in the MVP conversation. All things considered, it's difficult to say that's unreasonable, even if it doesn't seem realistic for him to win it.

In the ten games Garrett played in 2019, his impact warranted consideration for the Defensive Player of the Year award last year, but he wasn't getting it because the Browns stunk, falling far below expectations. Garrett is having a substantially bigger impact this season, which is making him difficult to deny. The Browns are winning and he's clearly the best player on the team, which only helps his case.

Garrett is leading the league in pressures per Pro Football Focus, second in the league with sacks behind Aaron Donald and while notable and important, the turnovers are the best way to truly measure his impact. Given the number of turnovers Garrett has helped to generate himself relative to teams in the NFL, it underscores how special Garrett's season is and just how impressive he is.

He is 24 years old and is under contract with the Browns for six more seasons.