Cleveland Browns star and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett ranks in the top ten of edge rushers in ESPN’s pass rush win rate. The metric uses real time location data to determine if the offensive or defensive player won the snap. The tracking data does a good job of removing some of the subjectiveness from third party graders.
Garrett has started the season hot. He’s recorded two sacks and two fumbles in two weeks. ESPN has awarded Garrett eight wins in 30 pass rush attempts for a 27 percent pass rush win rate. Garrett has been double-teamed on 30 percent of those attempts.
According to NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Garrett recorded the fastest sack this season. Garrett’s sack on Dak Prescott in Week 1 occurred in 2.57 seconds. The second-fastest sack happened in 2.6 seconds when Jordan Hicks sacked Trevor Lawrence last week. Most sacks take longer than three seconds to develop.
Garrett injured his foot last week and has played coy with the media about the severity. He played less than 70 percent of the defensive snaps against the Jaguars, primarily missing plays on early downs. Garrett will likely play this weekend, but he didn’t practice on Wednesday. Garrett must remain healthy over the next week. The Browns are set to play against several quarterbacks prone to taking sacks.
A healthy Garrett can use the next month to separate himself early in the Defensive Player of the Year race.