For the second time of his NFL career, Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett held a Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback’s helmet in his hands. This time went a lot smoother than the last.
In the “things to make you laugh to keep from crying” department after a terrible 13-10 loss to the Browns Sunday evening, QB Kenny Pickett lost his helmet on a 4th and inches sneak. It rolled away from the pile and Garrett, not directly involved in the play, picked it up.
Adam Schefter, where is your tweet?
This time, it didn’t end in fisticuffs. Rookie Broderick Jones knew the drill though, quickly coming over and taking the helmet out of Garrett’s hands to eventually give back to his quarterback. Jones shook his head as if to say, “You’re not doing this again” while Garrett put his hands up to proclaim his innocence.
Take a look at the sequence.
No helmet-swinging, no quarterback getting knocked down, no massive brawl that would result in tons of fines, a bunch of suspensions, and one of the wildest moments ever witnesses on a football field.
Per PFT’s Mike Florio, Garrett said Jones joked that Garrett shouldn’t have the helmet. Garrett responded he was “just trying to be helpful.”
Garrett hit the quarterback the legal way Sunday. In one of his most productive games against the Steelers, he finished with three QB hits and a pair of sacks, burning LT Dan Moore Jr. repeatedly throughout the day.
Pickett did have to leave the field, but it wasn’t for Garrett-related reasons. With his helmet off and underneath a pile of players, he got dirt in his eye and had to get it washed out by trainers (the same appeared to happen to Garrett early in the game). Because of a Browns unsuccessful challenge, Pickett didn’t have to miss a play and returned to the game.
Unfortunately, Pickett’s performance was similarly bad to Rudolph’s in that infamous 2019 game. Pickett didn’t throw four interceptions like Rudolph did but both quarterbacks struggled to move the football at all. In 2019, the Steelers finished with seven points. Sunday, they finished with 10 of them as Pickett had one of the worst passing outputs of any quarterback this season. Pittsburgh was beat up the old-fashioned away. Between the whistles, not after them, and they’re left to heal themselves before next weekend’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals and their backup quarterback.
