Myles Garrett confirms he wants to be on kickoffs

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BEREA, Ohio (WJW) — It appears Head Coach Kevin Stefanski wasn’t totally joking Tuesday when he said Browns Defensive End Myles Garrett might be returning kickoffs this season.

However, Stefanski has not confirmed if Garrett will actually return kicks, but the story took another turn Wednesday when Garrett told media in Berea that he wants to help on kickoffs, “whether it’s blocking or returning.”

Standing 6’4″ and weighing 272 lbs., Browns Defensive End Myles Garrett doesn’t exactly fit the typical size of a kickoff returner.

The position historically requires someone who is fast, slippery and sometimes hard to find in a crowd of 22 converging players during a kickoff, like Cleveland Browns returner Nyheim Hines, who is 5’9″, 196 lbs, although some returners are bigger.

Why is this even a topic, at least for now? Because Head Coach Kevin Stefanski alluded that Garrett is interested in returning kickoffs.

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That’s just a little levity for the first day of mini-camp practices, right? Well, Stefanski seemed to enjoy at least teasing the possibility with the media on Tuesday.

Due to drastic changes in the NFL’s new kickoff rule this season, there’s talk around the league that it could lead to more position players handling kickoffs.

During Tuesday’s Q&A with the media in Berea, a reporter asked Stefanski about Browns Assistant Head Coach and Special Teams Coordinator Raymond “Bubba” Ventrone mentioning he’s probably going to want to try “everybody” out there at kickoffs.

Stefanski replied, “Myles (Garrett) raised his hand last night.”

Which led to laughter by members of the media.

Four questions later it came up again when a reporter asked, “Is Myles (Garrett) going to get a chance to run some returns?”

To which Stefanski replied, while he was taking the last question and about to leave the press conference, “tune in.”

To quote one of the most repeated lines from the classic comedy and satirical movie ‘Airplane’, “Surely, you can’t be serious?”

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While Stefanski answered many in-depth questions about other key positions, and what the team is working on, a little levity can go a long way at June practice but as Stefanski said, “tune in.”

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