Myles Garrett becomes Browns' undisputed sack king, topping unofficial and official lists
CLEVELAND — Myles Garrett sounded as if he were pleasantly surprised when the Browns four-time Pro Bowl defensive end uttered, “I passed Bill?”
Yes, Garrett did.
Garrett surpassed the late Bill Glass as the undisputed sack king of the Browns with a dominant performance in Sunday's 27-3 win over the Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Last season, Garrett passed legendary linebacker Clay Matthews Jr. for the most official sacks in Browns history.
But because sacks were not an official NFL statistic until 1982, an unofficial sack list has existed on Pro-Football-Reference.com since 2021. The website credits “decades of research by John Turney and Nick Webster” with providing a “thorough accounting of the statistic all the way back to 1960.”
A Cleveland player from 1962-68, Glass had the Browns' unofficial sack record with 77.5 until Garrett's 3.5 sacks against the Titans gave him 79 in his career and the all-time franchise record — officially and unofficially.
“I couldn't do it without all the guys I've played with in my career,” Garrett told the Beacon Journal. “And it's an honor to play for this team and continue to make big plays for these guys because it's a brotherhood, it's a family and I respect everyone who came before me and laid the path for me.”
Garrett said he also “absolutely” respects the unofficial sack list because those plays mattered to Glass and other defenders who competed before the league began to track the stat.
“They counted to someone,” Garrett said. “They counted to those guys who got them, and I couldn't do it without those guys.”
The first overall draft pick in 2017, Garrett entered the weekend with 75.5 career sacks before he recorded multiple sacks in a game for the 22nd time. His 3.5 sacks against the Titans rank second among his single-game career bests. The franchise-record 4.5 sacks he produced against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 26, 2021, remain his career high.
Garrett reached 79 sacks in 87 regular-season games. Glass compiled his 77.5 sacks with the Browns in 94 games.
“[Garrett is] going to go down in history as one of the best, and to play side by side with him is a great feeling,” linebacker Sione Takitaki told the Beacon Journal. “When you know Myles and how hard he works, you knew [the undisputed sack record] was something that was going to happen eventually with how he plays and all the sacks and TFLs he gets.
"So I tip my hat to him. He's definitely our leader on defense. We've got to continue to lean on him and continue to execute game plans.”
Garrett, 27, moved ahead of Glass with a crucial sack to end the first half.
Facing third-and-10 at the Cleveland 11-yard line with no timeouts remaining and 13 seconds left in the second quarter, Titans coach and Akron native Mike Vrabel decided to go for it instead of settling for a field goal and a 13-6 halftime deficit.
But Garrett beat left tackle Andre Dillard — a common occurrence Sunday — and sacked quarterback Ryan Tannehill. The Titans ran out of time and came away from the red-zone trip with no points.
Through two quarters, the Browns (2-1) led 13-3 and Garrett had 2.5 sacks.
“I wanted to force the ball out on that last one,” Garrett said during a postgame news conference. “I was reaching for it, but [Tannehill] bobbled a little bit and kept it. But at the end of the day, [we] got them off the field without any points, and that's what really feels good.”
The CBS telecast showed Garrett having a large chain placed around his neck as a reward while he walked to the locker room for halftime.
“That's something that the D-line does as far as each person has a link, and we're only as strong as the weakest link,” Garrett said. “And we've got each other's back, and I had our back on that play.”
Although Garrett lamented not being able to knock the ball out right before halftime, he had already forced a fumble, registering a strip-sack on the final down of the opening quarter. He added his last sack early in the fourth quarter and finished with five tackles and five quarterback hits.
“Teams come in here and they say, 'Don’t let [No.] 95 wreck the game,'” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. “And he continues to do it.”
Garrett laughed about telling linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah the pass-rush moves he anticipated working against the Titans (1-2) wound up failing. However, his elite speed served him well. Now he has 4.5 sacks this season.
“I'm just like, 'Oh, to hell with it. I'm just going to burn them off the edge,'” Garrett said. “And those worked. I was like, 'Sometimes you've just got to keep on attacking.'”
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Asked about Garrett claiming the No. 1 spot on the list previously topped by Glass, All-Pro left guard Joel Bitonio briefly reflected on his teammate's NFL journey.
“Since Day One he stepped on campus, he's been a different class of player, and it's a credit to him, his work ethic, his genes,” Bitonio told the Beacon Journal. “He does some really special things out there, and today he single-handedly took points off the board at the end of the half. He made plays for us, and that's what we expect from him.
“If they aren't going to slide to him, he's going to make you pay. And I think you saw today, there was a few times they didn't chip or they didn't slide, and he sacked them. But for him to be the all-time sack guy for the Cleveland Browns is pretty impressive, and hopefully he has 10 more years of getting sacks to add to it.”
Garrett is in the early stages of his seventh Browns season. It won't take another decade of production for him to remain Cleveland's undisputed sack king for a long, long time.
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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Myles Garrett now Cleveland Browns' undisputed sack leader
