Myles Garrett delivers at Browns scrimmage with 4 sacks

The Cleveland Browns played a 12-drive scrimmage on Friday, with most of the first-teamers on the Brown Team and the second-teamers on the White Team. When DE Myles Garrett saw that he was with the first-teamers, he was a little disappointed because it meant that he wouldn’t be going up against LT Joe Thomas:

“I was [disappointed]. I was preparing to go against him, but then I saw the roster and saw that he was already on the Brown team. I kind of expected to go against him, but I knew that I would have to be ready for anybody that I went against.”

And boy, was he ready, logging two official sacks that were called by officials, but anyone who watched the scrimmage knows that four sacks should have been called. Garrett was humble, nonetheless, about deferring to the officials:

If you didn’t read our full play-by-play recap of the scrimmage, here is one of the sacks that Garrett had, coming from the left defensive end position against RT Matt McCants:

Seeing Garrett at left defensive end was a little surprising, as he has been at right defensive end all of camp, with someone like Emmanuel Ogbah on the other side. The first overall pick explained after the scrimmage that Gregg Williams wants to make sure Garrett is comfortable on both sides:

“[Gregg] wants me to learn everything. He does not want me to be stuck in one position. He wants me to learn the whole D line so if anything comes up or if anyone goes down, I can move to the left or even move inside if I have to.”

Here was the other sack that Garrett was officially credited with, this time from right defensive end against the guy he’s been beating all of camp, rookie LT Rod Johnson.

Here’s what head coach Hue Jackson said after the scrimmage about Garrett’s performance and the non-calls on some of his sacks:

“[Garrett] is a good player. He did some good things. There are some other sacks, that again, I was trying to be friendly to both sides. I was trying to play mediator there for a moment because there were some other hits that I think we would have had on the quarterback that the officials didn’t call because guys know that they are trying to stay away from the quarterback. It was played pretty cleanly from both sides. Guys wanted more sacks than what they got, and that is part of it. I get to make those decisions right now.”

One could argue that expectations should be taped when it comes to a player’s performance in training camp or scrimmages. DE Carl Nassib looked like a machine last year around this time, but was often stifled during the regular season. Garrett has been going up against the second-team offensive line every practice except for one, and is probably not facing the type of double teams/tight end chips he would in a game.. But the extreme level of dominance he’s showing against the second-teamers, coupled with his work ethic and demeanor, makes it seem like the Browns have a really special player at their disposal who they can’t wait to deploy.