NFL Hall of Famer linebacker, the late Dick Butkus, played on many bad Bears teams over his career. Butkus signed a contract extension during his career to stay in Chicago where he was from. He made a name for himself because of the defense he played. He was feared all over the league. Opposing teams game-planned around him, but he still created havoc on offenses zeroing in on him to take him out of the game. In present times I think you can say Myles Garrett, defensive end for the Cleveland Browns, is going down the same career path as the great Butkus. On Sunday, Garrett sacked Patriots quarterback Drake Maye 5 times and even forced a fumble. With that kind of performance you would think the Browns would have won the game. The Patriots won the game 32-13. The Browns record now is 2-6 and they are on their way to yet another losing season. Meanwhile Garrett is on pace to be the new sack king of the NFL if he continues his current pace. With longevity he should end his career with over 200 sacks.

This is Myles Garrett’s 9th season in the NFL, all with the Browns, and he already has 112.5 sacks in his career. On Sunday Garrett’s 108th sack of his career broke the great Reggie White’s record of most sacks before the age of 30. White played 15 seasons in the NFL and tallied up 198 total sacks before his career came to an end. Let’s remember White played in the USFL for two seasons before coming to the NFL.

In 1984 & ’85, White played for the Memphis Showboats. He played in 34 games and tallied up 23.5 sacks. White has tallied up 198 total sacks in the NFL and is second all-time on the league’s sacks list. Garrett could shatter White’s second place on the sacks totem pole list and surpass the current king of all sacks. That is former Buffalo Bills defensive end Bruce Smith who tallied 200 total sacks. Smith ended up in Canton, Ohio like White & his devastation on the quarterback position.

Myles Garrett has size, speed, and athleticism, determination, and will not turn 30 until this December. He has plenty of time to increase his numbers this season with only 8 games in. He will still have multiple games left to play at the age of 29. He already has 10 sacks for the season which will be the 8th straight season of getting double digits in the quarterback smash. It did not take very long to be the number 1 in sacks in Browns history. Clay Matthews is second in Browns history with 62 total sacks which he broke years ago. He is six sacks away from tying his personal best of his career when he had back-to-back years getting 16 in 2021 & ’22. The 5 sacks on Sunday meant he broke his own personal sack record in one game. In 2021 he had 4 1/2 sacks versus the Bears. Since the NFL has counted sacks since the year 1982, 20 players have had 5 sacks or more in one game. Only 4 of those players ended up losing the game.

In 2017, the Browns drafted Myles Garrett with the first pick of the NFL draft from Texas A&M university. If the Browns went quarterback that year, the player would have been a bust. They had a sure thing picking Garrett who is a game wrecker. A game changer. If the Browns were a winning organization, he would have been a closer. Everyone remembers Garrett ripping off Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolf’s helmet in the Browns/Steelers melee and beating him over the head with it. When it comes to Garrett that is the first thing I think about. That moment does not take away from his play on the field on any given Sunday. I thought during the off-season, the Browns were going to trade their game wrecker because Garrett wanted out of Cleveland. He demanded a trade out of town. They have been a bad team, they paid all the guaranteed money, and gave away a ton of draft capital for a bum of a quarterback in Deshaun Watson. A guy who is a sexual predator. The Browns ownership should have never traded for this guy. Now they are set back years because of this bad deal which may be the worst trade in history by a NFL franchise The Browns ownership suddenly ponied up a 4 year extension worth 204.8 million to keep their defensive end in town and we have not heard a peep out of Myles every since. There are no clear signs in Cleveland that this franchise will turn things around. Garrett may be heading down the same path as Dick Butkus. I’m not saying anything wrong with playing for only one franchise as that is not done anymore. Butkus was the best player on a bad team. So is Garrett. These two guys would be one of the top players on a very great team. No question about that. Reggie White did win a Superbowl. Bruce Smith was part of 4 AFC Championship wins and 4 Superbowl loses. Garrett could be supreme king of the all-time sacks list when his career comes to an end. He may get to play in some future playoff games. When is the biggest question. No guarantee he will do that suited up for the Browns. He may set a new sacks record like Babe Ruth did to the home run record where it took decades to break. He will never get that ring with the Browns.

The Cleveland Browns should hold auditions to find their next franchise quarterback. This off-season, the Browns have collected rookie quarterbacks and veteran quarterbacks to cover up the reek of Deshaun Watson which may be the worst trade in NFL history. Watson will miss the entire 2025 season due to re-injuring his Achilles tendon. Hate when bad things happen to bad people. The Browns brain trust thought they needed to bring in a cast of characters to find their next starter behind center. They acquired veteran QB Kenny Pickett from the Philadelphia Eagles. They signed another veteran Tyler Huntley who was Lamar Jackson’s back up for years in Baltimore. They drafted two quarterbacks in the NFL 2025 draft. In the 3rd round they took Dillon Gabriel from Oregon University. Then they took Shedeur Sanders in the 5th round from the University of Colorado. Then they brought back an old friend who may be over the hill at 40 years of age in Joe Flacco, who suited up for the Browns in 2023 and he was named this year’s starter.

I think any Dawg in Cleveland would rather have Joe Flacco starting as their quarterback than Deshaun Watson. In 2023 Flacco took over the starting job for the injured Watson and started 5 games for the Browns. Flacco went 4-1 and the Browns found the post-season. The Browns were quickly dispatched by the Houston Texans who rebuilt most of their team thanks to the Browns front office giving them a slew of top draft picks for the sexual predator. Last year Flacco suited up for the Colts because Watson wanted another Dawg behind him doing him doggie style. The Crab man in Jameis Winston is the king of the pick six. Flacco wanted to come back to Cleveland, but the Browns front office fumbled the ball again and listened to the sexual predator instead. Last year Flacco started six games for the Colts and had a losing record of 2-4. The Browns are starting a guy who is 40 years of age and has not played a 16 game schedule since he was a Raven in 2017. Since Flacco won the Superbowl with the Ravens & then was paid, he has not really done well since his resurrection with the Browns. He flopped in Denver after Baltimore. He then saw action with the New York jets for three seasons filling in for injured and inefficient Quarterbacks there. His last winning season besides 2023 was back in 2017 with the Ravens when he went 9-7. In 2018 he started 9 games for the Ravens, had a 4-5 record and then Lamar Jackson took over. Flacco headed to Denver. Flacco has 17 years in the NFL during which he has plenty of experience. He is familiar with the Browns division playing in Baltimore for so many years.

The rest of the quarterbacks that Cleveland brought in, many of them did not survive. If you can’t play QB in Cleveland maybe you should hang up the spikes. The Browns cut Tyler Huntley as he will probably crawl back to Baltimore & beg for his old job. Kenny Pickett did not see the field due to a hamstring injury. Pickett was a former Pittsburgh Steeler which he knows the AFC North from starting his career there. He was traded to the Raiders which leaves the two youngsters. I thought Cleveland was going to avoid the mistake of drafting another bust like Johnny Manziel. In the 3rd round, they drafted Dillion Gabriel who is QB number two for the Browns this year. Then in the 5th round the Browns just could not resist and took a flier of Shedeur Sanders who fell in the draft like the 1929 Stock Market crash. Sanders looked good in the very first pre-season game. Then looked horrific in the other two preseason games. He will be the Browns 3rd string QB. The Browns then perhaps don’t trust what they have in this year’s QB room, so added another veteran former New England Patriot Bailey Zappe to their practice squad. Looks like the Cleveland front office is not trusting Sanders and looking for a quick insurance plan just in case. When has Joe Flacco been a mentor to young QB’s? He was not a big fan when the Ravens took Lamar Jackson in the first round. He did not mentor Jackson after he was benched.

The AFC North is a grind house playing Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. Will Aaron Rodgers have his own resurrection at the QB position with the Steelers. If Flacco gets hurt, these young draft picks Cleveland has will be thrown to the wolves. This could be a recipe for disaster. Memories of DeShone Kiser going 0-15 as the starter in 2017 throwing 22 interceptions that season. Tim Couch was the number 1 pick overall in the 1999 NFL draft and he was a bust. Johnny Manziel was a science experiment that blew up in the lab that was the NFL field. If you’re the Browns, you don’t want to see Dillion Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders in a game until late in the season. These two next QB busts should at least hold the clipboard and learn most of the season before they get their feet wet on the NFL turf. I would root for Dillion Gabriel. I think Browns fans would want him to be the next franchise QB. Shedeur Sanders is overrated. Being Deion Sanders’ kid carries too much baggage. Then having the audacity to throw a few draft interviews of teams you did not like is equal to the Cleveland’s brain trust just being stupid for drafting you in the first place. These are the same idiots that kicked Baker Mayfield to the curb for playing most of the season hurt. You had a franchise QB you drafted number one overall in 2018 and you let him go. Mayfield looks solid in Tampa Bay. Why did these morons give Deshaun Watson a guaranteed contract which still baffles me? Giving that kind of money to a guy coming in with all sorts of baggage. Cleveland is desperate. They reek of desperateness. The same smell the stadium workers have to dung out after the Dawg pound heads home after another defeat. Now all the pressure is on a 40 year old QB that will make or break your entire season. Flacco is not the future. He is a distraction from Watson and like in baseball you want your starter to eat all those innings to save the young arms in the bullpen. More games Flacco plays, the better for the kids to learn. It may look and feel a lot better than the sting these fans took last year with Watson and Jameis Winston at the helm. Quarterbacks in Cleveland have been more than a sting. They are compared to a zombie bite. You have to cut off the arm or leg if bitten. No wonder so many Dawgs in Cleveland are named Lucky with missing limbs due to their QB play.