Nijman Will Face Toughest Challenge Yet Against Garrett

Green Bay Packers left tackle Yosh Nijman will face Myles Garrett, who ranks second in NFL history in sacks per game.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett wants to play on Saturday against the Green Bay Packers despite his groin injury.

And who can blame him?

Instead of a superstar showdown pitting Garrett vs. David Bakhtiari, it will be the indomitable Garrett against the Packers’ third-string left tackle, Yosh Nijman.

By the official stats, Garrett is third in the NFL with 15 sacks and 28 quarterback hits. According to Pro Football Focus, he’s No. 1 in the NFL in pass-rush win rate and No. 4 in pressures. He has at least one sack in 11 of 14 games, including 4.5 vs. Chicago in Week 3.

While Garrett was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft and has 10 career games of two-plus sacks, Nijman was an undrafted free agent in 2019 who will be making his seventh professional start on Christmas.

“They have really good edge setters (with) Clowney and Garrett,” Nijman said on Thursday, seemingly taking it all in stride. “I’m just once again really excited to play on Christmas, another opportunity to go out there and put on the ‘G.’ If he does or doesn’t play, I’m just excited for the challenge whoever’s out there, be able to go out there and show what I’ve got.”

On paper, this is a colossal mismatch. Garrett is second in NFL history with 0.88 sacks per game – just behind T.J. Watt, just ahead of Reggie White. But the game isn’t played on paper and Nijman has played well in place of Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins.

In six starts, PFF has charged him with three sacks: two against Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson in his third NFL start and one by Chicago’s Robert Quinn early in their game a couple weeks ago. Of the 70 offensive tackles with at least 250 snaps of pass protection, Nijman ranks 35th in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-blocking snap.

Nijman has faced some of the best of the best in the NFL. When he started three games early in the season when Jenkins was out with an ankle injury, his primary matchups were against San Francisco’s Nick Bosa, Watt and Hendrickson. When Jenkins suffered a torn ACL at Minnesota, Nijman was tasked with facing Chicago’s Robert Quinn, the Rams’ Von Miller and Leonard Floyd, and Baltimore’s Justin Houston.

Watt (first in the NFL in sacks), Quinn (second), Bosa (fourth) and Hendrickson (fifth) are Pro Bowlers and Miller is a future Hall of Famer.

“He’s had to block some pretty darned good defensive ends, and he’s done it at a really high level,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “We are so fortunate to have Yosh. I think he’s come so far from his first time stepping in this building. I’ll never forget, we had a rookie meeting where we handed out the notebooks and he gets his notebook and he comes up to me right afterward and he goes, ‘Hey, Coach, my name’s not Josh. It’s Yosh.’ I was like, ‘OK, Yosh, we’ll get that fixed for you.’ He has developed as much as anybody I would say over these last three years.”

LaFleur praised the work of offensive line coach Adam Stenavich and assistant Luke Butkus in developing what had been a 6-foot-7 bundle of potential.

“But you’ve got to give the person credit in term of just how he’s taken to the coaching, and not only from Steno and Butkus, but guys like David Bakhtiari,” LaFleur continued. “David does such a great job and there’s so many guys in that room that have really helped him get to where he is.”

Where he is is starting for a championship contender. Where he came from was the bench.

Nijman spent most of the 2019 season on the practice squad and most of the 2020 season on the bench (14 garbage-time snaps on offense and 81 snaps on special teams). In training camp this summer, he started at left tackle in all three preseason games and fared well against quality competition to earn his spot on the roster.

So far, he hasn’t backed down from any challenges. That’s what the Packers will be expecting on Saturday as they try to stay on track for the No. 1 seed.

While Nijman has 418 important snaps from scrimmage under his belt this season, nothing really has changed from a personality perspective. Between the third and fourth quarters at San Francisco, when Davante Adams was hyping up the rest of the offense, Nijman walked past him and told him what a “blessing” it was to be on the field that night.

On Christmas, Nijman will feel blessed again.

“I would just say that I’m proud of myself contributing to the team the way I have and I’m just grateful once again,” he said. “I’m just grateful to put on that helmet, be in the NFL and playing for the Packers. It’s really a dream come true given all the circumstances. I’m just grateful, really grateful.”