Cleveland DE reveals an interesting take on the team’s plan to fix the ongoing quarterback situation.
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett has spent eight seasons with a front-row seat to the ongoing quarterback issues that have plagued the team.
Starting with his rookie season in 2017 when the quarterback room of DeShone Kizer, Kevin Hogan, and Cody Kessler contributed to the 0-16 season, through the Baker Mayfield years, and the historically horrible play in 2024 of Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, and Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Garrett has watched as 16 different quarterbacks have taken a regular-season snap for the Browns.
That had to contribute on some level to Garrett’s frustration after last season, which led him to first demand a trade before ultimately deciding that staying in Cleveland to the tune of more than $122 million in guaranteed money as part of a contract extension was the way to go.
Garrett met with the media on Friday for the first time since signing the extension. While he was not exactly forthcoming about how the last few weeks played out, he did reveal something that may be interesting when asked about the quarterback situation (quote via a team-provided transcript):
“Just leaning on (Andrew Berry) and his expertise and knowing that he has a plan on what this team and this offense will look like going forward and he’s going to put the best offense possible out there. He’s going to get a QB that we all continue to have faith in and we’re going to go out and do our thing on defense.”
Acquiring a quarterback that everyone will “continue to have faith in” doesn’t answer the question of what the Browns will do with the No. 2 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, but it does speak to what the team has gone through in the past few seasons.
As frustrating as it is for fans to watch the defense shut down the opposing team only to then watch the Browns offense stack 3-and-outs, throw Pick-6s and generally bumble around, it has to be even more demoralizing for the defense when that happens quarter after quarter and game after game.
Having confidence that the offense is going to respond when the defense continually gives it the opportunity, or can pick up the defense on days when it is struggling, goes a long way toward keeping everyone engaged, and providing that extra boost to keep going when times to tough. (It goes both ways, of course, but the defense has been less of an issue in recent seasons.)
There may be some short-term growing pains this fall while the Browns continue to sort out the quarterback situation as they still need to add to a room that currently has Kenny Pickett sitting all alone.
But if Berry gets it right and finds the quarterback that everyone involved has faith in to get the job done, especially when times get tight, then the Browns may have finally turned a corner and be in a position to give Garrett the winning team he says he wants to be a part of at this stage in his career.