Myles Garrett always gets up for games, but he had no problem admitting that Week 16 will be different.
The Cleveland Browns might be playing their most anticipated home game in two years Sunday with Josh Allen and the 10-4 Buffalo Bills traveling to Huntington Bank Stadium.
With Allen in town, leading one of this year’s top Super Bowl contenders, and Garrett sitting just 1.5 sacks shy of breaking the NFL’s single-season sack record, the national attention figures to go beyond the Browns’ Dec. 29 home game in 2023, when Joe Flacco tossed three touchdown passes against his former team, the New York Jets, to clinch a playoff berth for Cleveland.
Oh, and have we mentioned yet that Shedeur Sanders will be making his fifth career start for the Browns, opposite the reigning MVP?
Sunday’s game should be a hot ticket in Cleveland, even if the Browns aren’t expected to hang around for long. The Bills are double-digit road favorites against the 3-11 Browns, who just played their worst game of the season in last week’s 31-3 loss to the Chicago Bears.
Garrett, as Browns fans would expect, is excited about the challenge of going head-to-head with Allen.
Myles Garrett dropped a telling quote about facing Josh Allen this week
When asked if it would mean more to break the NFL’s sack record against Allen, Garrett told it like it is: “Absolutely,” he said with a smile.
Garrett expounded by calling Allen special at the quarterback position.
“I mean, the guy’s unbelievable, what he can do at the quarterback position, and with the ball in general. There’s no one like him. So it’ll be a fun matchup. He’s the reigning MVP for a reason. We’ll have to stop him. We’ll have to stop that running game, and we’ll have to try and make them one-dimensional — but that’s a helluva dimension to have.
It would mean a lot to get it against him, because he’s very special. I have a lot of admiration for what he can do with the football.”
The feelings are mutual, as Allen called Garrett “one of the greatest of all time,” and “just the all-around football player,” during his presser with the local media in Buffalo on Wednesday.
Allen does not, however, look forward to potentially being the quarterback Garrett takes down to break the NFL’s current record of 22.5 sacks in a season, held currently by both Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.
“I do like highlight tapes,” Allen said, “but I don’t like being a part of other people’s highlight tapes.”
Allen does tend to take his fair share of sacks, as he’s known for holding the ball, extending plays, and stressing defenses to the last second both with his arm and with his legs. He was actually elite at avoiding sacks in 2024, leading the NFL with just 14 sacks taken in 17 games. He’s already been sacked 33 times this year, though, which is tied with Lamar Jackson for the sixth-most in football entering Week 16.
Garrett, meanwhile, has piled up a ridiculous 17.5 sacks over Cleveland’s last eight games.
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He enters Sunday’s game ranked 21st in NFL history with 124.0 career sacks, but he’s only gotten Allen one time over his nine-year career. For all of Allen’s brilliance, he could be powerless to stop what’s coming for him this week.