Leave it to Myles Garrett to create a sense of drama in a meaningless regular season game in January.
The Cleveland Browns superstar cut it dangerously close — as in, inside six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter — before finally notching his coveted 23rd sack of the season to officially become the NFL’s all-time record holder.
It felt like a long road to get here, with Garrett sitting on 20 sacks since Cleveland’s Week 14 game against the Tennessee Titans. But with a string of season-closing games against Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers and Joe Burrow, and his record chase taking on a life of its own in the media, cresting the previous mark of 22.5 never felt like a guarantee.
Garrett, however, remained steadfast in his belief that the record would come, even as his hunt reached his team’s Week 18 finale against Burrow and the AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals did their best to make Garrett earn it, too, utilizing a run-heavy game plan and Burrow’s quick processing ability to largely keep him at bay.
But late in the fourth quarter, with the Browns leading 17-12, the Bengals had no choice but to start airing it out. The record-breaking sack was about as legit as they come, with Garrett dusting left tackle Orlando Brown so quickly that Burrow had no choice but to protect the football and accept the negative play.
The weight was visibly lifted off Garrett’s shoulders on the field — and the monstrous defensive end was hoisted on his teammates’ shoulders on the sideline shortly after.
The reactions from the NFL world? They almost immediately started pouring in as Garrett notched a feat that could one day cement his status as the most dominant defensive player in league history.
Micah Parsons’ choice of hashtag says everything about Myles Garrett’s historic season
Green Bay Packers edge defender Micah Parsons lost his 2025 season to a torn ACL in mid-December, and defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley called out the sack record as a potential source of motivation for Parsons when he makes his comeback in 2026.
“Just wait until you guys see how hard he works to come back, how fast he probably comes back,” Hafley said. “And probably, if I were a betting man, I would bet that he comes back even better — and probably breaks the sack record next year. … That’s the confidence that I have in him.”
The coach never mentioned Garrett by name, but he’s the sole reason the sack record was a major NFL talking point over the second half of this season.
Parsons was definitely inspired, though. He was watching as Garrett chased history during Sunday’s fourth quarter, posting a congratulatory tweet almost immediately with the hashtag: legendary.
Congratulation to the Og MYLES GARRETT! #legendary! @Flash_Garrett
— Micah Parsons (@MicahhParsons11) January 4, 2026
Rival fans, particularly those of the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, will point to Garrett needing every quarter of a 17-game season to reach the magic number of 23. The Giants’ Michael Strahan recorded 22.5 sacks in 16 games during the 2001 season; T.J. Watt of the Steelers reached that same number in just 15 games, due to injuries, in 2021.
Anyone who watched the Browns play this year knows how impressive Garrett’s feat was, however, given the team’s deficiencies on offense, and the unprecedented attention Garrett was getting, especially over the final month of the season.
You could argue Garrett’s ability to stay on the field and battle through limited opportunities on a bad football team makes his 2025 season the greatest the NFL has ever seen from a singular defensive player.