Browns defensive end Myles Garrett cited a painful memory from earlier this season while discussing the team’s slim hopes of making the playoffs on Thursday.
Garrett said he “heard a stat that our chances to make the playoffs right now are greater than the chances the Jets had to win with two minutes left” in their Week Two game against the Browns. The Jets won that game with two touchdowns in the final 82 seconds of play and that’s why Garrett said he’s still pushing for the team to advance despite long odds against it.
There are also some personal reasons for Garrett to keep pushing. He’s four sacks away from tying his single-season high and he can be an All-Pro for the third straight year, but he said that any individual accomplishments are devalued if the team doesn’t succeed.
“Each person can say they had an individually great season depending on how you did, but as a team, no,” Garrett said, via Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal. “You fall short of the playoffs and you don’t achieve what you set out to do, it’s a failure. I mean, you can learn from it. I’m sure you can take something away, but if it’s success or failure and that’s the only two options we would’ve failed ourselves.”
With the playoffs unlikely, Garrett might have to be content playing spoilers to others and having a big day on Saturday would boost the Browns’ chances of doing that against the Ravens on Saturday.