Cleveland Browns All-Pro Myles Garrett out to prove he's the LeBron James of NFL defenders

BEREA — The younger brother of a former NBA player, Browns All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett is fluent in basketball analogies.

He understands why people analyzing his NFL career, including some friends, would point to LeBron James and the Cavaliers as a comparison.

There was a stark difference in talent surrounding James in 2007, when he dragged the Cavs to the NBA Finals for the first time, and in 2016, when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love played key roles in halting Cleveland's 52-year title drought.

As the Browns prepare to open their most highly anticipated season in a generation Sunday on the road against the defending AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs, they have what Garrett called “by far” the best collection of defensive talent since they drafted him first overall in 2017 out of Texas A&M University.

A revamped defense has given the Browns hope they can build off last season's regular-season record of 11-5 and subsequent playoff run, which ended Jan. 17 with a 22-17 divisional-round loss in Kansas City.

End Jadeveon Clowney and tackle Malik Jackson are among the important defensive pieces acquired by Browns General Manager Andrew Berry in the offseason.

“I've got my Kyrie and my Love?” Garrett asked rhetorically last week during a wide-ranging interview with the Beacon Journal at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus.

“Well, hell, I have to prove that I'm LeBron first before anything. I have to prove that I'm the playmaker at all levels. Hell, he's top three in any debate that you have.”

Garrett, whose brother, Sean Williams, entered the NBA in 2007 as a first-round draft pick of the New Jersey Nets, knows there is still another echelon he can reach. Maximizing his potential to produce a complete, dominant NFL season has eluded him thus far.

Garrett, 25, has had countless conversations about the topic with those in his inner circle.

“[My friends say], 'It's not even talent. You've just got play the whole season. You've just got to be there and be available.' It's like, 'Yeah, I hear ya,'” Garrett said.

“I feel like I have the talent to put out a hell of a year, one that will be remembered for a long time, especially here with the things we're doing or hope to do this year. If I can have the year they expect me to have and that I hope to have, then it will be remembered for a long time. It will be just what I'm hoping that I could've done the last two years and continue to do for the rest of my career.”

Garrett has played a full season just once as a professional. It happened in 2018, when he posted a career-high 13½ sacks in 16 games and earned his first of two Pro Bowl selections.

On the heels of his best statistical season, Garrett predicted in May 2019 during a groundbreaking ceremony at Ellet High School in Akron he would “crush” Reggie Camp's official single-season franchise record of 14 sacks the same year.

It has yet to happen, and in hindsight, Garrett might have jinxed himself because his 2019 and 2020 seasons were derailed by bizarre twists.

Garrett ranked fourth in the NFL with 10 sacks through 10 games in 2019, but he missed the final six weeks of the season while serving a suspension for hitting Mason Rudolph over the head with the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback's helmet.

Garrett led the NFL with 9½ sacks and had been tied for first with four forced fumbles through nine games when he contracted COVID-19 in November 2020. He missed two games before returning for the final seven, including two playoff showdowns.

But Garrett admits he wound up being a shell of himself because the aftereffects of the virus were exacerbated by his asthma. His strong candidacy for NFL Defensive Player of the Year fizzled. In February, Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald won the award for the third time in his career.

Garrett recently ranked 16th on NFL Network's “The Top 100 Players of 2021,” a list the league says is determined solely by the votes of current players. Reacting to the rankings via an Instagram story, James wrote Garrett belongs in the top 10.

"Flat out beast!!" James added.

Only three defenders finished ahead of Garrett on the NFL Network list. They are Donald at No. 2, Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt at No. 9 and Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey at No. 13.

“I take note of any slight towards me — large or small,” Garrett said.

No. 16 is a slight?

“Absolutely,” Garrett said. “Whether I finished the year or not, the year I was having before COVID was dominant. And afterward, I should have and could have done better. I didn't come back how I wanted to, feeling how I was supposed to, but I can't make excuses for that. I've just got to take care of myself, and I get that.

“The guys who were in the talks to win DPOY, Watt and Donald, great players, but I was right among them before I was hit with COVID. They didn't get it. So they were available. They were on the field, and they took care of themselves. That's on me for not doing that — however I got it — and I've got to make sure I'm available this year for my team, for the individual goals that I have and for whatever run we'll have in the playoffs.”

COVID-19 affected Garrett even before it infected him. His great-grandmother died of the virus. Later, his father, Lawrence, and mother, Audrey, contracted it last summer, and Lawrence had a particularly difficult struggle before recovering.

“He's back in Texas with my mother right now, working on building a home,” Garrett said, “but they'll be up Week 1, ready to go to Kansas City to see what we can do.”

About six months ago, Garrett lost an aunt to breast cancer.

“There was a lot going on during the year and shortly afterward. It definitely wasn't the easiest,” Garrett said. “At the end of the day, you've got to surround yourself with people who are going to keep your head high, keep you going forward no matter what storms are around you or you're within. I have a great family, great friends, great teammates and coaches that will do absolutely anything for me at any given time, and they're just a blessing to be on my side and to be able to call them mine.”

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When Garrett steps onto the field, he's always playing for his family, he said, but there are others he'll be thinking about this year. In 2016, he traveled to Haiti on a mission trip. Locals presented him with an orange headband he wears under his Browns helmet during practices and games as a symbol of pride and gratitude. He has been thinking about the Haitians since a magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated their country last month.

“Honestly, this year is mostly about them because they were such hospitable people,” Garrett said. “They loved having us around, and I loved being a part of their culture for the time that we were there.

“I want to be able to show that I appreciate them. I'm trying to do the best I can to put them on the map. Even though I'm not from there, I feel like I'm part of the family just because of how they welcomed me.”

Showing he's the LeBron James of NFL defenders, representing his family and using a high-profile platform to help Haiti are among Garrett's driving forces during a year in which the stars could finally align for him to fully capitalize on his talent.

“He's such an unbelievable athlete,” Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods told the Beacon Journal last week. “Just the things he's able to do in terms of his size, his speed, the ability to bend the edge, be dominant in the run game, be dominant as a rusher, he's capable of doing it all at a high level. I'm fortunate because I was with Denver, so I had Von [Miller], who's a very similar player, and those guys, you never know what they're capable of. I mean, it's untapped.

“I know for [Myles], he's excited because he saw the success we had last year, so now I think it's a new outlook on what we're capable of, and then when you put a couple pieces with him, across from him and inside, now it's like, 'OK. Now we've got a chance. I may not be getting double-teamed all the time, and I'm going to have some one on ones.' So we'll be able to put him in some good positions, but I think he really is excited about this year and what we possibly can do defensively.”

Another edge rusher from Texas A&M, Miller was named Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl 50 after the Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers to end the 2015 season.

That's the type of lasting legacy Garrett seeks.

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.