The Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett and Green Bay Packers’ Micah Parsons will share a field this Sunday. For Garrett’s money, they share the title of the two best pass rushers of their era.
Garrett made the claim during a Friday meeting with reporters.
“I think we’re two of the very best [pass rushers] of this generation,” he said via ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi.
“I think we’re two of the very best,” Garrett’s full comments said, as shared by the Browns’ transcript. “I think we’re two of the very best in this generation, so just got to continue to lead the way. There are definitely some other names in that conversation, but I think saying that he’s in it and that I’m in it is not out of the norm.”
Garrett added other names are near them in the conversation, but he opted against mentioning others specifically. Clearly that includes T.J. Watt, the man who is most often compared to Garrett in career resumes in the never-ending discussion of who is better.
But with Watt failing to register a sack in six-straight games, the conversation might be shifting. From a media-attention perspective, it helps that Garrett and Parsons’ deals were some of the “loudest” of the offseason. Both requested trades. Both received market-resetting deals. Garrett signed a $40 million average yearly deal to remain with Cleveland. Parsons signed a $46.5 million average yearly deal as part of a trade to the Packers, a blockbuster deal they pulled off with the Dallas Cowboys days before the NFL season began. Watt got paid handsomely, more than Garrett on an average yearly value basis, but his deal got done before training camp and without much fanfare.
Through two games, Garrett is tied for the NFL lead with 3.5 sacks. Parsons has 1.5 on limited chances. In fact, Garrett only trails Watt by two sacks for their career, 108 to 106, and Garrett could leap ahead should Watt’s drought extend a few more games.
Despite Watt’s recent quiet box scores, he remains one of the best of his generation. He’s still feared by offenses and commands an absurd amount of attention, leading Jack Sawyer to freely pick up the first sack of his NFL career last Sunday. Garrett and Watt will still always be compared and before the season, Watt was named the second-best pass rusher behind only Garrett. Same draft class, same division, and for the foreseeable future, the same teams. But Garrett may no longer view Watt as an equal but as something a step below.
