Browns All-Pro Myles Garrett 'has that mindset to dominate' heading into opener at Carolina

BEREA − Jedrick Wills Jr. will face some pretty good edge rushers during his Browns' career. Very few, if any, are better than the one he's faced on a seemingly daily basis in practice.

So no one may be better able to judge just how much Myles Garrett has improved in just a year's time than Wills, the third-year left tackle.

"Shhhhh," Willis said with a chuckle Friday. “It is not wrong to say that at all. Yeah, Myles has done really good. I feel like he’s gotten way better than he was last year and he was already one of the best defensive players in the NFL. So I’m excited for him. I feel he’s going to have a really, really big year.”

That's been the nearly universal reviews of Garrett, the former 2017 No. 1 overall draft pick, in the past month or so. This is already after Garrett posted as good a year as a Browns pass rusher has ever had in 2021, when he set the single-season sack record with 16.

The newest model of Garrett has been kept under wrap to most everyone outside of Berea throughout the preseason, except for those who showed up at training camp. He didn't participate in a single preseason game, and even missed some camp time to be with an ill family member.

So the hype has only built up to the debut of this latest version of the All-Pro defensive end. Hype gets a chance to become reality on Sunday when the Browns open the season at the Carolina Panthers.

Garrett, though, isn't letting the talk dictate his walk, so to speak.

"Just doing my thing as best that I can," said Garrett, whose 58.5 career sacks are second behind Clay Matthews' team-record 62. "As far as taking it to another level, that’s always the goal of what I’m trying to do. Get 1% better each day, even if it’s .01%, whatever I can do to work on my craft and perfect something that I didn’t yesterday. That’s every day with what I’m trying to do after practice and while I’m in practice and I think it’s been paying off a little bit. But I’m glad these guys are noticing.”

Noticed enough to eventually earn the Defensive Player of the Year award? That remains something to be played out.

Noticed enough within the facility that everyone from coaches to players are making sure everyone else is noticed? There's days' and weeks' worth of evidence that it's happened for Garrett.

“You just saw a little bit of it every day," defensive coordinator Joe Woods said. "It is just different. I don’t know. It is just like he has a mindset to dominate and it is just the focus. You can see it. It is not that I am talking to him a lot – it is just like, ‘Man.’ Definitely looking forward to him having a big season for us.”

That big season starts with a big day in North Carolina. That big day in North Carolina starts with the prospects of Garrett lining up across from a player making his NFL debut in Panthers' rookie left tackle Ikem Ekwonu.

Ekwonu was the No. 6 overall pick in April's draft. A 6-foot-4, 320-pound North Carolina State product. Ekwonu is the lone rookie listed on the Panthers' depth chart as a starter.

His reward? Looking across the line of scrimmage at Garrett.

Garrett tried to sound diplomatic when asked about the prospects of facing a rookie.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for me and him, being able to play against a young guy, get to learn him as we go," Garrett said. "He’s got a lot of tape on me, but he doesn’t have a lot of experience with edge rushers around the league, but ... I don’t have a lot of tape on him as far as how he’s handling a pass rusher on this level and what he can do so it’s going to be a little bit new for both of us and I’m looking forward to the opportunity."

Woods was a little more blunt in his expectations. Not in terms of setting a total for Garrett to reach in the number of times he beats the rookie to get to quarterback Baker Mayfield.

Instead, it was about the realities of dealing with the likely double- and triple-teams that are going to come Garrett's way, from rookies and veterans alike.

“You have to have a rush plan," Woods said. "He is always on the edge. They know where he is. We know he is good out on the edge so you want him to do what he does well, but at the same time, you want to move him around, try to create matchups and try to make it hard on them to find him in terms of what they are trying to do in terms of protection.”

Garrett, for one, isn't worried so much about exactly the way opposing linemen are responding to his presence. He knows he's being targeted and every line he faces is going to know where he is at all times.

Instead, there's a certain cold, calculated way about how Garrett processes the seconds between him lining up and the ball being snapped.

"I try to look at the formation or how guys' feet are located and their hips, how low they’re sitting to the ground, where their eyes are at. I’m looking at little stuff like that," Garrett said. "Whether he’s pointing at me or not, I feel like I’m going to get the slide most of the time so I’m just assuming I’m going to get a couple of guys my way regardless.”

Wills knows what it's like to be one of those guys. It's why he's confident in his own growth as a player on the offensive line.

Still, the experience of going against Garrett?

“Oh, it’s horrible," Wills said. "It’s every single play, but it helps me a lot so by the time I get to the game I go against somebody else it’s a big drop off. Myles is a really good player."

One that, by all accounts, has found a way to get even better since last year. Something that Garrett can unleash for the first time on Sunday.

Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Myles Garrett has that mindset to dominate for Browns as opener nears