How Myles Garrett could single-handedly wreck the Chiefs offense in Week 15.
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KC’s struggles protecting Patrick Mahomes, especially at left tackle, could lead to a huge day for one of the NFL’s best pass rushers.
Myles Garrett is a physical monster. He’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 272 pounds.
He’s fast enough to beat most NFL tackles on the outside, but also strong enough to overpower them.
He’s already extended his streak to seven straight double-digit sacks seasons.
He’s an absolute nightmare for whichever of KC’s tackles has to line up opposite him.
He’s just as used to dealing with double teams as KC’s own Chris Jones is and it hasn’t stopped him from terrorizing opposing quarterbacks regularly.
Last week the Chiefs had a hard time dealing with Khalil Mack.
Mack is a fantastic player, but Garrett is on another level.
Just look at these numbers.
On the season Mack has 6 sacks, 7 quarterback hits, 26 hurries for 39 total pressures, and a 13.1% total pressure rate.
Garrett has 11 sacks, 9 quarterback hits, 38 hurries for a whopping 58 total pressures, and an eye-popping 16.9% total pressure rate.
The only player on Garrett’s level this season was Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson before he got injured.
The Chargers game wasn’t the first time an opposing pass rush caused major issues for the Chiefs this season.
It started way back in Week 2 when Trey Hendrickson consistently beat Kingsley Suamataia and ended the night with a ridiculous 33% pass-rush win rate and 2 sacks.
Regardless of which of KC’s tackles is playing on Sunday the Chiefs better do everything they can to help them with Garrett because none of them should be left one-on-one with him unless it’s a quick pass where the ball is instantly out of Mahomes hands.
Garrett also has a reputation for having huge games when he has a favorable matchup.
He has two 3 sack games already this season.
He has 14 games with more than one sack over the past three seasons.
He just overwhelms offensive linemen.
Normally my advice would be to run at the opposing pass rusher to slow them down.
but Garrett is so powerful that you don’t want to run at him either.
A fully healthy left tackle will usually struggle with Garrett and KC’s left tackles are beat up enough right now that former Chief Donovan Smith is posting things on social media that imply he thinks KC should give him a call.
The Browns defense as a whole hasn’t been very good this season.
They’re 26th in the NFL in points allowed with 25.8, but they’ve also been put in terrible positions at times because of the quarterback play of Jameis Winston and Deshaun Watson.
They’re 21st in yards allowed per game with 343.2.
They aren’t especially good in coverage this season and they haven’t done a great job overall at stopping the run.
The only thing exceptional about their defense is Garrett.
He’s the type of player that can single-handedly blow up drives, especially if he’s matched up with a struggling or not fully healthy left tackle.
The Chiefs need to design their entire game plan on offense around minimizing Garrett’s impact on the game.
They need to run the ball to limit his chances to get to Mahomes.
When they do throw they need to get the ball out quickly, roll out away from Garrett, use play-action to force him to hesitate, or commit a tight end or running back to chip or double-team him.
If they can limit Garrett’s impact they should be able to win matchups elsewhere against Cleveland’s defense.
If they don’t Myles Garrett is a special enough player to take over a game and force the Chiefs into yet another ugly close game.
So far those games have come out in KC’s favor, but it would be nice if this Sunday the Chiefs didn’t temp fate yet again and could get a less stressful win.
That will only happen if they can find a way to contain one of the best defenders in the entire NFL.
