Myles Garrett is banged up but the Cleveland Browns star pass-rusher has no intention of missing Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Garrett is listed with three injuries. He’s dealing with foot, thigh and Achilles ailments that have limited him practice this week. However, Garrett left no doubt about his status for the team’s Week 4 matchup against the Raiders.
“No excuses,” Garrett said on Thursday, September 26.
Garrett is no stranger to playing through injuries. He battled a shoulder issue last season for the back half of the season and still emerged with 14 sacks and was named Defensive Player of the Year. When asked about his ability to play through injury, he dropped a memorable quote.
“I try to spend every moment preparing my body for the rigors of the season,” Garrett said. “Sometimes, [I have] some bumps and bruises like I have right now. So, an injured animal is the fiercest, so I’m going to be at my best.”
Myles Garret Had MRI on Feet After Loss to Giants
Garrett had an MRI after the team’s Week 3 loss to the New York Giants. After that loss, he said he was dealing with multiple issues stemming from his foot injuries.
“It’s more than just the foot,” Garrett said. “It’s multiple things going on. So, I mean, if I think the foot’s feeling good or feeling better, it’s one thing or another. So it’s kind of just feeding into each other right now, and nothing’s sitting right because nothing has time to heal because I’m leaning on something else and I’m compensating here to make something hurt there. It’s just been, like I said, a cycle.”
The MRI came back clean but Garrett has been listed as day-to-day. There’s a chance he’ll officially be listed as questionable due to all the issues he’s dealing with but Garrett has left little question of if he’ll play. He has two sacks this season and faces a Raiders team that ranks No. 26 in sacks given up per game (4.0).
Browns Sorting Out Offensive Line Injuries
Garrett is far from the only injured Browns player, with Cleveland dealing with multiple key injuries on their offensive line. Jedrick Wills Jr. and James Hudson III left Sunday’s game, as did right tackle Dawand Jones.
The most significant injury is Pro Bowl guard Wyatt Teller going on injured reserve with a knee injury. He’ll miss at least four games.
It’s a rough situation for the Browns, who have allowed Deshaun Watson to be sacked a league-high 16 times.
“You just have to pivot and adjust accordingly. So, we’ll see,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said of the offensive line injury issues. “We’ll get to the end of the week and kind of see where we look up front, certainly, and then make decisions from there.”
The Browns are hitting the road to take on the Raiders. They’re a 2-point underdog for the matchup, per ESPN BET.
At 1-2, the Browns have just a 19% chance of making the postseason, per ESPN. That’ll drop significantly if they fall into a 1-3 hole.
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
