Every team needs an ‘edge’

years.

The Browns are hoping to have better success with their top pick than the last time they drafted a defensive end with the No. 1 overall pick. That was in 2000 when they selected Penn State’s Courtney Brown, whose career was checkered with injuries. Brown appeared in only 47 games in five years with the Browns, registering 101 tackles and 17 sacks. He was out of the league by 2007 after two unproductive seasons with the Denver Broncos.

Garrett, though, looked like the real deal until his injury. Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who has coached 27 years in the NFL, called him the best rookie he has ever coached.

He certainly has the mentality.

“You have to be a gamechanger,” Garrett said. “You have to be able to turn the tide of a game at any given time, somebody who, when it’s third-and-15 and maybe it’s the fourth quarter and we need a stop to get the ball back, they put you in and say, ‘You’re the guy.’ That’s how good you have to be.”

There are no guarantees. The last time an NFL team drafted an edge rusher with the top overall pick was 2014 when the Houston Texans selected Jadeveon Clowney, a defensive end/outside linebacker who has not had the type of production associated with the top selection. In 31 NFL games, Clowney has 99 tackles and 101⁄ sacks. Compare that to Oakland’s Khalil Mack, who was selected two picks after Clowney. In 48 games, he has 226 tackles and 30 sacks.

Only two edge rushers who were drafted in the first round in the past five years have had that type of production. Defensive end Ezekial “Ziggy” Ansah, who was selected by the Detroit Lions with the fifth overall pick in the 2013 draft, has 32 sacks in 59 games. And Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa, selected No. 3 overall in 2016, was named NFL defensive rookie of the year after getting 101⁄ sacks in just 12 games, despite a trainingcamp contract holdout.

Ansah is easily the best of what was a poor draft for edge rushers on the first round in 2013. The other five selected on the first round, including Jarvis Jones by the Steelers If not for an ankle injury suffered Wednesday, the Steelers would be seeing No. 1 overall pick Myles Garrett across the line of scrimmage Sunday in Cleveland. at No. 17 overall, have combined for a mere 211⁄ sacks. One of the players – Bjoern Werner, selected 24th overall by Indianapolis — is already out of football. Barkevious Mingo, drafted with the sixth overall pick by the Browns, is on his third team, after registering just seven sacks in 62 career games. And Dion Jordan, drafted No. 3 overall by the Miami Dolphins, hasn’t played the past two years after getting just three sacks in 26 games.

Edge rushers are in demand, even if they don’t always pan out.

“This league is a passing league,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said at the NFL combine. “So it’s about protecting the quarterback and getting guys who can go get the other quarterback.”

But here’s the problem: Some of the best pass-rushers in college football are too small to play on an NFL defensive line and get moved, sometimes unwittingly, to outside linebacker. While that switch doesn’t always work for some teams, the Steelers have made a habit – and a successful one, at that – of projecting college defensive ends to play outside linebacker in their 3-4 defense. The list includes Jason Gildon, Joey Porter and current left outside linebacker Bud Dupree.

That position is considered the key to the 3-4 defense. And the main reason they’ve selected three of them with their No. 1 pick in the past five years.

“It’s why we’re here – to rush the passer,” Watt said. “That’s what we’re going to be trying to accomplish. Bud and I are going to be on different ends and trying to meet back there on Sunday.”

The Steelers haven’t had a duo each register double-digit sacks since James Harrison (101⁄ and Lamarr Woodley (10) in 2010, their last Super Bowl appearance. Dupree said it’s become harder to get sacks from the edge because so many teams use a quick passing game, in part to protect their quarterbacks.

“That’s the only thing that slows you down, when they start throwing quick passes,” said Dupree, who has 81⁄ sacks in 23 career games. “It didn’t used to be like that. Now everybody has a lot of quick routes. You just got to do your move fast and do it quicker.”