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The Browns want Myles Garrett to be more of a leader.
The Cleveland Browns challenged Myles Garrett to take on more of a leadership role after locking him in with a lucrative four-year extension.
After some dragged-out trade drama, Garrett and the Browns agreed to a four-year, $160 million extension that links him to the team through the 2030 season.
Garrett’s dominance on the field cannot be understated. He has seven straight seasons with double-digit sacks and 14 or more in his last four. However, Garrett’s ability as a veteran leader in the locker room could improve.
“What we’ve challenged Myles on is, by his practice habits, by his actions, etc., to become a real leader of the team,” Browns owner Jimmy Haslam told cleveland.com this week. “And he has said he’d do that and we’re hopeful that he will be.”
Myles Garrett’s Practice Habits Called Out
Shortly after Garrett inked the extension, a report from Jason Lloyd of The Athletic pointed to the powerful pass-rusher not leading by example with his practice habits.
“It’s well known within the Browns that Garrett is frequently late to the facility. He has skipped mandatory team activities on multiple occasions,” Lloyd said. “Veterans typically police the locker room on those types of things and create the culture of accountability, but here, it’s the best player breaking the rules. That has to change now.”
After signing his hefty extension, Garrett expressed a desire to grow into more of a leader.
“I’ll continue to be the person that I have been,” he said. “And I think just being that constant leader, I don’t think you can put a dollar sign on that at any time. Leaders come from guys who are undrafted to guys who are the highest paid. It doesn’t take a playmaker to be a leader, nor does it take, like I said, a dollar sign. So continue to learn to be more and more a leader every year and every day.”
Browns Never Considered Trading Myles Garrett
Getty ImagesThe Browns could draft Abdul Carter to give Myles Garrett an elite pass-rusher partner.
Trade rumors ran rampant early this offseason, especially after Garrett did a media tour and expressed he would do whatever he could to force a trade. However, internally, the Browns were confident that the future Hall of Famer would not be going anywhere.
“We had a lot of conversations about it and there was never serious thought to trade Myles,” Haslam said. “What we know we have in Myles is a Hall of Famer. Myles just turned (29) if I remember, I think in December. He’s probably got five or six really good years in him and is a dominant player who coaches have to game plan for and we value that. We want him to stay here and retire with us, etc. So it was never really a serious thought.”
The Browns now have one of the elite difference-makers locked in on the defensive end for the foreseeable future. And they have a chance to give him a dynamic pass-rush partner in Abdul Carter, who is the favorite to be selected with Cleveland’s No. 2 overall pick. The Browns need a quarterback, but the idea of having a pair of elite pass-rushers might be too good to pass up.
J.R. DeGroote covers the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com. He graduated from Arizona State and has decades of experience in digital media with previous stops at SBNation and Bleacher Report. He has won multiple state, regional and national honors for sports reporting and photography. More about J.R. DeGroote
