Myles Garrett’s pursuit of record has one NFL legend heaping praise

When Myles Garrett continues his pursuit of the NFL’s single-season sack record on Sunday at Soldier Field, it will be nothing less than must-see TV for one notable observer.

Bruce Smith, the NFL’s all-time sack leader, will be watching from his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, eager to witness what the Cleveland Browns megastar does next. Garrett, leading the NFL with a career-high 20 sacks, needs just three sacks to break the NFL record of 22 ½ sacks shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.

If anyone can relate to Garrett’s spectacular run at history it is Smith, the Hall of Famer who bagged 200 career sacks. You know. Greatness knows greatness.

“It’s so impressive,” Smith told USA TODAY Sports. “I’ll make sure I’m in front of the TV to watch him play whenever I can, to see how teams are blocking him and see how he is reacting to the double-teams and all the different types of blocking schemes that teams are putting in their gameplans to try slowing him down.”

Smith was quick to identify the game-within-a-game as he expressed appreciation for the art of hunting quarterbacks. It’s one thing that Garrett, whose 30th birthday is Dec. 29, is the first player in NFL history to post at least 12 sacks in six consecutive seasons and can notch the longest streak of his career against the Bears with a sack in his eighth straight game. It’s another whole matter that week after week, Garrett draws double-team blocks on roughly 30% of passing downs. Add the high rate of chip blocks, as running backs and tight ends help before releasing into pass routes, and the extra help probably rises to the neighborhood of 70% in trying to account for the favorite to earn his second NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award.

“The only thing that kind of slows him down is when they double- and triple-team him or use chip blocks – and he has found a way to anticipate when they are coming,” Smith said.

Last weekend, when Garrett had a sack and three tackles-for-loss, it was considered a major win for the Tennessee Titans that he was limited to a 4.27% pass-rush win rate that matched his lowest of the season. Against a quarterback, Cam Ward, sacked more than anyone in the league. Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, though, pointed to the Titans’ running game (35 rushes, 184 yards, 5.3 per carry) as the essential weapon.

“It’s hard to get a sack when it’s a run play,” Schwartz told reporters at Browns headquarters. “And even though I keep beating on my same horse, beating on the same drum, whatever the expression is, Myles had those tackles for losses in the run game. You know, what’s the difference? I mean, it’s a little bit like the 65-yard run, give up a 65-yard pass – same result. Probably gets a little less attention, but defensively, a run is a strike to your physicality and mentality and things like that.”

Now the Bears are similarly motivated to avoid having Garrett (6-4, 272) achieve the record on their watch, a week after not allowing Micah Parsons a sack in a loss at Green Bay. Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams said that Parsons, who had five hurries and two quarterback hits, was the ideal preview for what’s coming with Garrett.

“You just have to make sure that every single snap, every single play, everything is not allowing them to wreck the game,” Williams told reporters. “That’s something he can do. That’s something he’s done his whole career.”

Williams went on to marvel at Garrett’s “deep bag of tricks,” which includes a so-called “Euro step” basketball move that begins with a stutter-step, speed rushes, power moves, alignment wrinkles and then some.

Smith’s assessment?

“He is rare,” he said, warming to the theme. “It’s the way he bends. He’s got the patented move where he gets off the line of scrimmage quicker than anybody, particularly for that size, when he gets in arm’s-length reach of an offensive lineman, he bends. He ducks under the stab of the offensive lineman, and he’s still able to get leverage. It virtually makes him unblockable.”

It’s striking to hear Smith’s description. In his heyday with the Buffalo Bills, when Smith was in the midst of seven consecutive double-digit sack seasons, the big-man agility that complemented his strength was a signature trait.

“I would slap the hands and create separation,” Smith said. “His is a variation. He dips under the lineman’s grab-and-stab move, and is able to turn the corner with leverage. Those are two distinct and different pass-rush moves, but extremely effective.”

It’s too bad that for all of Garrett’s impact, the Browns (3-10) are nowhere near the NFL’s playoff picture. He could become the first player from a team with a losing record to claim the top defensive honor since Miami’s Jason Taylor in 2006. The losing has certainly taken a toll. In February, Garrett publicly requested a trade, which the Browns never considered – yet moved to sign him to a four-year, $160 million contract extension that at the time was the biggest for a non-quarterback in league history and ties him up through 2030.

Hey, he’s already outplaying his contract, so to speak.

As Smith put it, “He is a stud.”

The connection traces to Garrett’s NFL entry. When the Browns prepared to draft Garrett from Texas A&M with the No. 1 pick overall in 2017, Smith visited him in his hometown of Dallas and watched film with him. A few months later, when Garrett went to his first training camp, then-Browns coach Hue Jackson invited Smith, who played 19 NFL seasons, to spend time in camp for a few days to work with the prized pick.

And look at him now. With 122 ½ career sacks, Garrett ranks 22nd on the NFL’s all-time list. He’s averaged 16 sacks per 17 games. At this rate, in the coming years there might be a different conversation about Garrett chasing a coveted sack record.

Think he’s got a shot at topping 200 to break the all-time record?

“There are a lot of factors that will eventually come in play,” said Smith, who set his milestone during his final season, with Washington, in 2003. “But if anybody’s got a chance to do it, it would be Myles Garrett.”

Which another way of saying that game surely recognizes game.

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell