What to know with Myles Garrett 1 sack from breaking NFL’s single-season record – The Athletic
CINCINNATI — Myles Garrett’s last chance to break the NFL’s single-season sacks record comes Sunday when the Cleveland Browns play the Cincinnati Bengals at 1 p.m. ET.
Garrett has 22 sacks on the season and stands just a half-sack short of the record of 22.5 currently shared by Michael Strahan (2001) and T.J. Watt (2021) of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who kept Garrett without a sack in last week’s 13-6 Browns win.
Garrett said he believed the Steelers were more concerned with keeping him from sacking quarterback Aaron Rodgers than they were with winning the game, which the Browns mostly dominated. Garrett has never sacked Rodgers, but on Sunday he faces Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, whom Garrett has sacked 11 times.
“My confidence hasn’t wavered,” Garrett said Friday. “I’m fully confident it will come (Sunday).”
At 11, Burrow and the Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson top the list of Garrett’s most frequently sacked quarterbacks. Garrett’s 15 career sacks versus the Bengals are his most against any team. With a half-sack versus Buffalo in Week 16, Garrett became just the sixth player to reach 22 sacks in a season.
Earlier this season, Garrett passed Lawrence Taylor to become the first player with at least 12 sacks in six consecutive seasons. With 124.5 sacks in 133 career games, Garrett holds the NFL record for most sacks recorded before a player’s 30th birthday. Only Reggie White (137) had more in his first nine seasons.
White was the previous record-holder for most sacks before a player’s 30th birthday at 108. Garrett celebrated his 30th birthday on Monday, a day after the Steelers snapped his streak of nine straight games in which he’d recorded at least a half-sack. Though the Steelers obviously didn’t want Garrett to break the record against them, Strahan has publicly spoken about Garrett’s opportunity to break it.
“That is something that I had in my mind coming into the league, being talked about among those greats,” Garrett said. “So, I just want to continue to just put myself into that conversation.”
Garrett is a six-time All-Pro and was the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year, but he’s never previously won a sack title. With one game remaining, he’s 5.5 sacks clear of the nearest pursuer, Brian Burns of the New York Giants.
Garrett broke his previous career high and franchise single-season record of 16 (2021 and 2022) in November during a run that started with a five-sack game in a late October loss at New England. Garrett then sacked Jackson four times during Baltimore’s November win in Cleveland.
