The Athletic has live coverage of NFL Week 15.
Myles Garrett resumes his quest to rewrite the NFL’s single-season sacks record Sunday when the 3-10 Cleveland Browns visit the 9-4 Chicago Bears.
Garrett, who last week became the 13th player to reach 20 sacks in a single season, has been chasing the current record of 22.5 shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt. Though Garrett had just one sack in each of his last two games, he has three games this season with three or more.
So while it’s unlikely the record falls Sunday, Garrett tends to record them in bunches — and has proven capable of completely blowing up opposing game plans and his own in-game sack totals. Before this season, his personal best was a 4.5-sack game in 2021 against the Bears.
But Garrett had five sacks versus New England in late October, four sacks versus two-time league MVP Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in mid-November and three sacks the last time the Browns won, in Week 12 at Las Vegas.
Lawrence Taylor (1986) is the only player with four three-sack games in a season since the NFL officially recognized sacks as a stat in 1982. Garrett can match that and break the single-season record Sunday with a three-sack game. He has eight three-sack games in his career.
Earlier this season, Garrett passed Taylor to become the first player with at least 12 sacks in six consecutive seasons. With 122.5 in 130 career games, Garrett holds the NFL record for most sacks recorded before a player’s 30th birthday. Reggie White was the previous record-holder at 108.
“That is something that I had in my mind coming into the league, being talked about among those greats,” Garrett said. “So, I just want to continue to just put myself into that conversation.”
Garrett’s target Sunday is another former No. 1 overall pick, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. A week after the Tennessee Titans successfully ran the ball on the Browns and used a quick passing game to keep Garrett at bay, Chicago will probably do the same. But when the Bears pass, Garrett knows that Williams is rarely a stationary target and is also a threat to run away from danger.
“(Williams) has great peripheral (vision),” Garrett said. “A lot of times it looks like his eyes are downfield and he spins out of a sack, or he ducks out of one. So, like when you see a guy like that, he gives you a little bit of (feel) like Lamar (Jackson) or a little bit of Pat (Mahomes) as far as how he moves and how he navigates through the pocket, just (being) able to skip out unscathed and look downfield, making those big plays.
“We’ve got to make him look a little bit more ordinary on Sunday.”
Garrett is a four-time first-team All-Pro and was the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, but he’s never won a sack title. With four games remaining, he’s seven sacks clear of the nearest pursuer, Brian Burns of the New York Giants. He broke his previous career high of 16 (2021 and 2022) in November.
Garrett said he also knows that J.J. Watt’s single-season tackles for loss record is 39, and he wants to break that, too. He enters Sunday’s game with 31.
