Myles Garrett Vows to ‘Throw the Fridge Back’ at Steelers OL
Browns star pass rusher Myles Garrett is always a confident player. As a player, he carries that emotion on his sleeve and is having one of the NFL’s best seasons by an edge rusher in 2023. So, when teams line up to face him, you expect they may throw exotic looks at him to get some advantage over Garrett.
Earlier this week, Myles Garrett talked about the Steelers potentially throwing the kitchen sink at him up protection front. In the past, Pittsburgh has neutralized Garrett’s sack production by giving help from various sources to left tackle Dan Moore Jr., including slide protection and chips. But Garrett is ready for anything they throw at him.
“Shoot, we gotta get more physical with them, got to find a way. You know they’re going to throw the kitchen sink at me, well I got to throw the fridge back,” Garrett said.
When Garrett gets compared to someone like T.J.Watt, for example, the production is always close, and it is again this year. Garrett and Watt are nearly head to heat-in most categories, and both receive attention differently. Garrett will see some true double teams while Watt sees other things such as condensed sets and chips to slow down his explosiveness off the edge.
That’s why the Browns have started moving Garrett around the formation. Instead of lining him up on the edge, Garrett lined up over the center and interior to create havoc there. Since there are more bodies to work with outside the tackles, it can just be easier to slow down edge pressure, and so giving Garrett, an explosive athlete who naturally will cook centers and guards, a two-way go on the interior is a massive weapon from Jim Schwartz, the Browns defensive coordinator. Regardless, slowing down Garrett is going to become one of the key tenants in the game if Pittsburgh wants to walk out with a win in the Dawg Pound.