BALTIMORE — Myles Garrett plans to put his money where Grant Delpit’s mouth is and back up the safety on his remarks about Ravens’ bruising running back Derrick Henry.
Asked Thursday how hard it is to take down the 6-3, 252-pound Henry, Delpit said “not hard.”
The inflammatory quote immediately went viral, and probably reached Henry’s eyes within minutes.
“Yeah, I saw that,” Henry told reporters in Baltimore on Thursday. “His coach had a quote. He had a quote. We’ll see on Sunday.”
No one could find the coach’s quote that Henry referenced, but Garrett vowed to help Delpit cash the enormous check he wrote heading into Sunday’s game.
“We’ve got to go out there and prove it,” Garrett said. “Talk is cheap. I mean, he’s a hell of a player. He’s a Hall of Fame talent, but we’ve got to go out there and have our guy’s back. So, we’re going to support him in the best way we can and that’s by slowing him down and stopping the run game and nullifying their best talents as best as we can.”
Kevin Stefanski knows that it will, in fact, be hard to take down Henry, who was involved in the collision with linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah in the first meeting last season that resulted in the linebacker’s career-threatening neck injury. As it stands, he’s out at least this season too.
“Great player,” Stefanski said Wednesday of Henry. “Everybody saw it the other night (Sunday night vs. the Bills). He’s a rare combination of size, speed, power, you name it. So again, somebody that we have a tremendous amount of respect for.”
Browns defensive coordibnator Schwartz went so far as to say that “they’re the best run team in the NFL, and that’s Derrick Henry, but also Lamar Jackson with the scrambles and design quarterback runs.”
He said the Browns will need to be physical up front and at linebacker “because you have an extremely strong, extremely big running back that can go North-South ... you give that guy a head of steam, it’s tough on your defense.
“So, if we’re doing a good job playing physical up front, we’re getting some penetration, we’re not giving him those downhill where he gets his foot in the ground, doesn’t have to change course, that’ll go a long way to stopping the run game.”
Henry, who coughed up the ball with 3:06 left to spark the Bills’ 41-40 come-from-behind victory on Sunday night, will let his legs do the talking. Last season, he rushed for 138 yards on 20 carries (6.9-yard average) in the season-ending 35-10 victory over the Browns, with two TDs and a long blast of 43 yards. He had 83 yards after contact.
In the first meeting in Cleveland, he rushed for 73 yards on 11 carries (6.6-yard average) with one TD and a long gain of 39. He also had 70 yards after contact. In that game, Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah also suffered a season-ending and career-threatening neck injury in a collision with Henry that landed him in the hospital overnight for observation. Owusu-Koramoah is out for at least all of this season with the injury.
Henry, in his second season with the Ravens after eight with the Titans, is a five-time Pro Bowler and 2020 NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
“Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, Ronnie Stanley, [Roger] Rosengarten,” Garrett said. “I don’t want to leave out Zay Flowers, but all those guys give me juice to go down there and play the very best ball. So being able to go against the best competition, many pundits and critics saying that they’re the best team in the AFC, that kind of stuff gets me fired up to go against them. I don’t need much more than that.”
But Garrett, who notched 2.0 sacks in last week’s 17-16 loss to the Bengals despite a dominant performance by the Browns defense, does have a few more reasons to be turbo-charged for this game, including the fact that the Browns are 11.5-point underdogs.
“Thought it was 12.5 last I checked,” Garrett said. “Yeah, it definitely goes through my mind when we’re working throughout the week.”
He’ll also try to help insure that Joe Flacco, returning to Baltimore for the first time since 2018 when they replaced him with Lamar Jackson after 11 years, six playoff campaigns, three AFC Championship Games, one Super Bowl victory and one Super Bowl MVP trophy, has a happy homecoming.
“Hell, he can make sure of that himself if he goes out there and throws some tuds,” Garrett said. “We’ll take care of the rest.”
What’s more, Garrett feels his beloved Browns fans’ pain for the Ravens celebrating 30 years since Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore — while the Browns are in town on Sunday. The extravaganza features the return of star players and power-brokers, a dynamic video presentation and the honoring of two-time Super Bowl-winning GM Ozzie Newsome, the Browns Hall of Fame tight end.
“That’s usually older crowd than I hang out with, but I do hear it every now and then when I go to get gas,” Garrett said of Browns fans who live through the move. “So yeah, I do understand the feelings and the motives behind people’s dislike of them — and I’m one with the city, so I try to carry that on my back when we go in there or they come to our place.”
The Browns just might rain on the Ravens’ parade if Garrett can have Delpit’s back and help slow Henry.
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com's Browns reporters.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.