:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63722430/usa_today_11543233.0.jpg)
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett has been everything a team could want since being the No. 1 overall selection of the 2017 NFL Draft.
From posting a sack on his first play from scrimmage in a regular season game in 2017, to being named a team captain and earning a Pro Bowl trip in 2018 after registering 13.5 sacks, Garrett has earned the respect of his peers and terrorized opposing quarterbacks.
It turns out that Garrett has accomplished all that while be being held back by his own coaching staff.
In a profile published Thursday by Bleacher Report’s Dan Pompei, Garrett explains how former defensive coordinator and interim head coach Gregg Williams inexplicably put the handcuffs on Garrett:
“I hopefully have more freedom to be the player I want to be. [Former defensive coordinator and interim head coach] Gregg [Williams] was more like: ‘You win with these two moves. I don’t want to see anything else out of you.’ It’s kind of hard with two moves. I feel like you can’t always be so predictable. You can be as strong or fast as you want, but speed chop and power move aren’t always going to work. You have to mix up what you’re doing. Sometimes you have to stutter step, sometimes you have to spin inside, you have to run some games. You have to have some freedom to throw different looks at them, and we didn’t always have that.”
It is a bit incredible to look back on what Garrett has been able to accomplish while reportedly being limited by the very people who are supposed to be in his corner and working to make him a better player.
Now that the Browns have removed that impediment, it is going to be exciting to see what Garrett can do on the field this fall.
Which, consequently, will be bad news for the quarterbacks lining up against the Browns this season.