CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett was an all-rookie selection in 2017 and earned Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors following the 2018 season, both of which came under the direction of former coordinator/interim head coach Gregg Williams.
Following the 2018 season, Williams was not retained, and instead, took a coordinator job with the New York Jets, and the Browns moved in a different direction with the hiring of former Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks, known for his defensive play-calling with the Carolina Panthers.
And Garrett apparently feels like getting away from Williams will be a good thing for his career.
“I hopefully have more freedom to be the player I want to be,” Garrett told Dan Pompeii in an article on Bleacher Report. “Gregg 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.”
Garrett earned selection to his first Pro Bowl after a standout second season with the Browns in 2018.
After an injury-riddled rookie year in 2017, Garrett emerged as a leader for the Browns’ defense in 2018 and registered 44 total tackles, including 35 solo stops and nine assists with three forced fumbles while playing in all 16 games for the team who selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
Additionally, Garrett registered 13.5 sacks for 75.5 lost yards and finished the year with the fourth-most sacks in a single season in franchise history.
With 20.5 career sacks, Garrett registered the most by a Brown in his first 27 games, as well as the most by a defender in his first two professional seasons. This year, Garrett ranked sixth in the NFL with the 13.5 sacks.
For his efforts, Garrett became the Browns’ first front seven defender to reach All-Pro status since linebacker Jamir Miller in 2001 and first defensive lineman since Michael Dean Perry made the AP All-Pro Team in 1994.