Myles Garrett

Myles Garrett is an American football edge rusher who spent his first nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns after the franchise made him the No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft. Over that stretch he became the most productive pass rusher in team history and, in the 2025 season, the most productive single-season pass rusher in the history of the sport, breaking a record that had stood for a generation. Twice named Defensive Player of the Year, he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams in June 2026 as the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.

Vitals
Born	December 29, 1995, Arlington, Texas
Position	Edge rusher (DE / OLB)
Teams	Cleveland Browns (2017–2025), Los Angeles Rams (2026–present)
Draft	2017, Round 1, No. 1 overall (Cleveland Browns)
Contract status (June 2026)	Reworked to a reported five-year, $208.2M deal on his trade to the Rams; retains a no-trade clause
Number	95

Texas A&M

The prospect. Garrett played three seasons at Texas A&M from 2014 to 2016, arriving in College Station as one of the most decorated defensive-line recruits of his class. He was a first-team All-American in 2015 and a unanimous All-American in 2016, pairing rare length at 6-foot-4 and roughly 272 pounds with elite explosiveness off the edge.

The projection. By the end of his junior season Garrett was the consensus top prospect in the 2017 class, and on April 27, 2017 he became Texas A&M’s first No. 1 overall NFL draft pick. The Browns, coming off a 1-15 season, took him to anchor a rebuild.

Cleveland: building the résumé (2017–2022)

The arrival. A foot injury cost Garrett the start of his rookie year, but he still recorded 7 sacks in 11 games and made the PFWA All-Rookie team. He followed with 13.5 sacks in 2018 and quickly established himself as the centerpiece of the Cleveland defense.

The controversy. On November 14, 2019, in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Garrett ripped the helmet off quarterback Mason Rudolph and struck him with it, drawing an indefinite suspension that cost him the remainder of the season — six games. Garrett said Rudolph had directed a racial slur at him during the play; Rudolph denied it, and the NFL said it found no corroborating evidence. Reinstated for 2020, Garrett returned without missing a competitive beat.

The ascent. From 2020 onward he became a fixture on the All-Pro ballot. He posted 12 sacks in 2020, then a then-career-high 16 in 2021 and another 16 in 2022, earning first-team All-Pro honors in 2020 and 2021 and making the Pro Bowl in each season he was healthy.

Cleveland: Defensive Player of the Year (2023–2024)

The peak. In 2023 Garrett recorded 14 sacks and a then-career-high in tackles for loss, and was named Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year — the crowning individual honor of his career to that point. He followed with another 14-sack campaign in 2024, again earning first-team All-Pro recognition even as the Browns struggled around him.

The frustration. Cleveland’s inability to build a contender around its best player set the stage for the most turbulent offseason of Garrett’s career.

The trade request and record extension (2025)

The request. On February 3, 2025, Garrett formally requested a trade, stating that his goal had “always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl” and that money was not the issue.

The reversal. Roughly five weeks later, on March 9, 2025, he and the Browns agreed to a four-year, $160 million extension with $123.5 million guaranteed, a deal that ran through 2030, carried a no-trade clause, and made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league — surpassing the benchmark set by Maxx Crosby. Garrett said afterward that he did not regret the request and that his stated aim was to bring a title to Cleveland.

The record-breaking 2025 season

The chase. With his future settled, Garrett produced the finest season by an edge rusher in league history. He recorded three games with at least three sacks and set a Browns single-game record with five sacks against the New England Patriots in Week 8.

The record. In Week 18 he brought down Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow for his 23rd sack, breaking the NFL single-season record of 22.5 shared by Michael Strahan (2001) and T.J. Watt (2021). He also led the league with 33 tackles for loss, the second-most in a season since 2000 behind only J.J. Watt’s 39 in 2012. The performance earned him his second AP Defensive Player of the Year award.

Los Angeles Rams (2026)

The trade. In early June 2026, despite the no-trade clause he had negotiated a year earlier, Garrett waived it to force a move to a contender. The Browns sent him to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for pass rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick. Garrett kept a no-trade clause in Los Angeles and reworked his contract with the Rams.

The status. As of September 30, 2026, Garrett is on the Rams’ active roster as an outside linebacker wearing No. 95, opening the 2026 season in Los Angeles.

By the numbers

Season	GP	Tackles	Sacks	FF	PD
2017	11	31	7.0	1	1
2018	16	44	13.5	0	3
2019	10	29	10.0	0	0
2020	14	48	12.0	2	2
2021	17	51	16.0	1	3
2022	16	60	16.0	0	4
2023	16	42	14.0	1	3
2024	17	47	14.0	1	1
2025	17	60	23.0	0	1

Per ESPN, through the 2025 season.

Career totals

Ranks

• 1st Sacks in a single NFL season (23, 2025)
• 1st Career sacks, Browns franchise history (125.5)
• 1st Sacks in a game, Browns franchise history (5.0, 2025)
• 2nd Tackles for loss in a season since 2000 (33, 2025)

Honors

• 2× NFL Defensive Player of the Year (2023, 2025)
• NFL single-season sack record (23, 2025)
• 7× Pro Bowl (2018, 2020–2025)
• 5× First-team All-Pro (2020, 2021, 2023–2025)
• 2× Second-team All-Pro (2018, 2022)
• 2017 No. 1 overall draft pick
• PFWA All-Rookie Team (2017)

Per Wikipedia and the Cleveland Browns, through September 30, 2026.

The arguments

Is 23 the true single-season record? Garrett’s 23 sacks broke a mark that Strahan set across a 16-game schedule in 2001 and that Watt equaled across 17 games in 2021. Critics note that Garrett, like Watt, benefited from the extra regular-season game the NFL added in 2021, arguing the raw total flatters modern rushers against older ones. Supporters counter that Garrett also led the league in tackles for loss by a wide margin, evidence that the sack figure reflected genuine disruption rather than schedule inflation.

Competitor or mercenary? Garrett requested a trade, signed a record extension weeks later while vowing to win in Cleveland, then waived his own no-trade clause to leave for the Rams a year on. Some Browns supporters viewed the sequence as a player using leverage and then abandoning a stated commitment; Garrett and his defenders framed it as a great player, stuck on losing teams, doing what the sport’s biggest stars are entitled to do — chase a championship while he is still in his prime.

Does the 2019 incident belong in the ledger? The helmet-swing suspension remains the darkest chapter of Garrett’s career. One camp holds that striking an opposing player with a helmet is indefensible regardless of context; another emphasizes Garrett’s unretracted account that he was provoked by a slur, an allegation the league said it could not corroborate and that Rudolph denied. The episode is universally cited, but its weight against an otherwise sterling record is contested.

Why it matters

Myles Garrett is the rare defensive player whose peak reset a leaguewide standard. He turned a moribund franchise’s No. 1 pick into a decade of production, rewrote the Browns’ record book, and in 2025 pushed the single-season sack record past a number that had defined pass-rushing greatness for two decades. That his career pivoted from a Cleveland loyalty pitch to a Los Angeles title chase only sharpens the question every era asks of its best defenders — whether individual dominance, however historic, is remembered as fully as the championships it was meant to produce.