Rookie impressed by Garrett’s desire as defensive end plays through injury
The pain was obvious almost every time Myles Garrett went to the bench during Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay. That didn’t stop him from inflicting pain on the Buccaneers.
Garrett was involved in two of the biggest plays of the 23-17 overtime win. The first was when he and Jadeveon Clowney forced a punt by sacking Tom Brady on third-and-13 from the Buccaneers’ 17 with less than 2:30 remaining in regula- tion to set up the Browns’ game-tying drive.
The second one came on another third-down play, this time with just under 3:30 left in overtime. Garrett broke through to sack Brady again, this time forcing a punt that set up the Browns’ game-winning drive.
“Myles, he’s the ultimate competitor,” cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. said on a Zoom call Monday. “He’s going to give it everything he’s got every time he steps on the field. And that’s a guy that I want to go to war with and play behind and battle with. He turned it on and he made some great stops for our defense that we needed.”
Garrett, though, acknowl- edged in the postgame news conference that the pain was extreme during Sunday’s game. The primary focus was on his left shoulder, which he injured in a September car accident.
That injury forced Garrett to miss the Browns’ Week 4 game at Atlanta. He didn’t discount the possibility of offseason surgery on the shoulder, but wasn’t interested in talking about anything in-season.
Coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday the Browns have been monitoring Garrett since the injury. He stopped short of saying there was a chance the All-pro defensive end could sit out a game, such as Sunday’s at Houston.
“I mean, with any deci- sion like that, you’re always making sure you’re protecting the players and making smart decisions, talking to the medical professionals, those type of things,” Stefanski said. “So we’ll con- tinue to do that. I don’t
know that that’s what’s gonna happen here. He’s continuing to battle through what all our guys are battling through, which is not feeling 100%.”
Concussion updates
Stefanski had a mixed bag with regards to the injury situation at cornerback. He said A. J. Green, who left Sunday’s game in the first half, is in the concussion protocol.
Green had started the last two games as the slot cornerback. That was due in large part to a concussion sustained by Greg Newsome II on the Friday prior to the Buffalo game.
Stefanski said Newsome was still in the concussion protocol as of Monday. However, he believed the second-year cornerback was “trending in the right direction.”