If the National Football League paid any sort of attention to defensive players, the Cleveland Browns would have the leading MVP candidate in their ranks right now.
Myles Garrett has been the most impactful defensive player in the league this season, up to the point where winning Defensive Player of the Year just isn’t enough.
The fact that the Browns are 9-5 despite the plethora of injuries they’ve endured points out just how important Garrett’s presence has been this season.
That’s why NFL analyst Peter Schrager insists that even though other DEs like T.J. Watt have better stats than Garrett this season — which isn’t easy to do — the Browns’ record is reason enough to consider him a legitimate MVP candidate.
Simply put, the Browns wouldn’t stand a chance to go far without Garrett, yet they’ve won nine games.
They could’ve even won 10 games if Deshaun Watson’s shaky play didn’t cost them a rivalry matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers; that’s just how good Jim Schwartz’s defense has been this season.
The Browns have had four different quarterbacks win at least one game for them this year, and while the coaching staff obviously deserves a ton of credit for that, what can we say about the dominant force who’s getting doubled and triple-teamed on every single snap?
This team’s defense has been solid all around, but if Garrett wasn’t out there drawing that much attention, they simply wouldn’t have been able to be as dominant as they’ve been this season.