Even with Deshaun Watson, Myles Garrett and Nick Chubb are still Browns MVPs
With all the fuss about Quarterback Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns are still the team of Myles Garrett and Nick Chubb, and they do not need to play hero ball in order to win.
The Cleveland Browns and their fans appear to be fixated on the quarterback position, but Myles Garrett is the proven Alpha leader of the defense, and Nick Chubb is the leader of the offense.
Championships can still be won by great defenses, and if the Browns would ever realize that they have the leading ground game in the NFL, they will not be starved for points. They should have a puncher’s chance in the AFC North regardless of who plays quarterback.
Deshaun Watson is of course the preferred option, but maybe we should manage our expectations for a while until we know whether he’s even going to play a down for the Browns. On the other hand, Cleveland made the playoffs and beat the tar out of the Steelers in Pittsburgh just two seasons ago on the strength of a run-first offense and an opportunistic defense. That is what has always worked for the Browns, who are and who always have been and always will be a cold-weather, natural turf team.
Cleveland is going to induct their first member of the Hall of Fame from this century in Joe Thomas. The second will probably be Myles Garrett.
Browns team MVPs
Myles Garrett is The Man on defense
The MVP of the Browns defense is certainly Garrett, who was a First-Team All-Pro selection last season again last season, accumulating 16.0 sacks along the way, plus 17 tackles for loss and an amazing 33 hits on the quarterback. He was banged up towards the end of the season, or his total could have been even more impressive, and he might well have been Defensive Player of the Year, instead of arch-rival T.J. Watt.
Watt was helped by getting four sacks against the overmatched Browns in Week 17 last season. Had Garrett and Jack Conklin stayed healthy for that game, then Garrett might have brought the DPOY award to Cleveland.
No matter. We are not going to criticize Watt here. Both are headed on Hall of Fame trajectories. Who knows? Maybe he and Watt will go into Canton together someday. However, the Steelers are not going to the Super Bowl without Watt, and the Browns can forget all about it without Garrett. That is one thing the Steelers and Browns have in common.
In fact, let’s do an experiment. Google the following phrase: NFL, “offense wins championships”.
The result when this writer punches that phrase into the laptop is 3,980 hits. Now Google the analogous phrase: NFL, “defense wins championships.” That results in 205,000 hits. That’s more than 500 to one. It’s not just one little sportswriter saying that defense wins championships and certainly not just the quarterback position. Maybe some people are taking the quarterback too seriously.
In the 2017 draft, there was a big controversy, with a number of fans demanding that the Browns should draft a quarterback instead of a boring defensive end like Garrett. Those of us who were advocating drafting Garrett were beaten up in print rather badly, as a significant number of Cleveland fans were in favor of drafting the immortal Mitchell Trubisky, the pride of Mentor High School, over Garrett. After all, the quarterback is the most important position in today’s NFL.
The fact of the matter is that, while advocates of the defensive line may have lost the debate in 2017, Garrett is 10 times the player Trubisky will ever be. No offense to Trubisky, who was falsely blamed for an incompetent Chicago Bears offense.
Trubisky did make a Pro Bowl and is 29-21 for his career with a 64-to-38 touchdown-to-interception ratio for da Bears, so perhaps he is not as horrible as people make him out to be. In fact, if I were the Cleveland general manager, he would have been signed this past offseason instead of Watson, and the Browns would still have their six draft picks and most of that $230 million. But Trubisky is nowhere near as valuable as Garrett.
When Garrett is on the field, quarterbacks hit the turf, and footballs are separated from the quarterback’s grip. He has perfected the strip-sack, in which he pulls on the quarterback’s arms so suddenly and violently that the ball just pops out. It looks like he is shucking an ear of corn. He has the speed to run down a halfback and can just run through an offensive lineman like he is not even there. He can have a devastating effect on an opponent’s offense.
If you have forgotten how Garrett can influence the outcome of a game, the NFL was kind enough to compile a highlight reel for us. Then, let’s talk about Nick Chubb.