Does it surprise you that Myles Garrett has never eclipsed the 20-sack single season mark? It should — he has spent two straight years as the highest-ranked defensive player on the NFL Top 100 list, and is by all player accounts the best at his position by far in the league. If you follow this logic, then, you must have been mildly disappointed to learn that, through Week 11 of the 2025 season, Garrett is on pace to accumulate 25.5 sacks by season's end. Disappointed, even though that number would not just set, but shatter the NFL's all-time single-season sack record of 22.5, shared by the Steelers' TJ Watt (2021) and New York Giants legend Michael Strahan (2001).
Garrett's mutant-like 2025 season doesn't end there, either. His overall PFF grade of 92.3 is first among all edge rushers, has 43 quarterback pressures, and only trails Houston's Will Anderson, Jr. in pass rush win percentage (27.0 to 27.4 percent, respectively). Only New York's Brian Burns comes close for total sacks through Week 11. Garrett is, by far, the best defensive player in the NFL.
So why do we all feel a little bit disappointed in him?
The Browns are ruining Myles Garrett's legacy
Unlike whatever poor left tackle he's assigned to on any given week, Garrett cannot win against time. Even now, he is battling against historical data that flies in defiance of what might be his greatest individual season yet. ESPN's Brian Burke has compiled eight seasons of pass rush win rate data to predict a win rate decline by the average age of 29. To be sure, Garrett is anything but average. He's 29 right now, and poised to break an all-time record. But 30 is coming, and the Browns are nowhere close to winning.
Maybe they will next season. Maybe once they get out from under the thumb of Deshaun Watson's laughable deal. Maybe once Quinshon Judkins, Harold Fannin, Jr., and either one of Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders grow into players that can elevate Cleveland's offense from the second-worst in the league in total yards. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
All the while, Garrett's career is dying slowly by the year. He is the reigning DPOY, a six-time Pro Bowler and All-Pro (four-time First Team), and yet, the Browns have only posted two seasons over .500 since his first season in 2017. Regardless of how locked in Browns GM Andrew Berry is on Garrett's future in Cleveland, for Garrett's sake, it is high time that they set him free as he requested in Feb 2025.
Myles Garrett is an all-time talent. But the Browns are destroying and wasting what could — should — be a veritable legend in the making, just like Detroit did to Matthew Stafford, what Indianapolis did to Andrew Luck. If Garrett sets this single-season sack record, he will have cemented himself a place in wider NFL history that he has yet to thus far. And if the Browns finish yet again with a record that lands them a pick at the top of the next year's draft, they will be denying him more of that — more of what he deserves.