BEREA, Ohio — Myles Garrett can hit a blocking sled anywhere. He can lift weights in Japan, where he visited last week during Week 1 of organized team activities. And teammates will follow Garrett’s example whenever he returns to the practice field.
Point is, he doesn’t need OTAs, which continued Wednesday without him. The Browns don’t require Garrett’s presence until next week’s mandatory minicamp. As coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters three times last week, “this is a voluntary program.”
But wants carry weight in relationships, too. And if given the choice, I’d bet Cleveland would prefer its best player attend practice.
Walk past the party line, where defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz reiterated Stefanski’s “voluntary” comments on Wednesday, and into the real world. The Browns are rebuilding a broken culture, and they could use Garrett’s help. By choosing not to until he has to, he’s hurting the leadership cachet he cultivated last season — which, it should be noted, included a pile of public pressure aimed at his bosses.
Quick review:Garrett told reporters last December that he did not want to play through another rebuild. He put the onus on management to sell him a winning future, heard their pitch, then requested a trade.
To punctuate his point, Garrett ran a media track meet where every lap featured a new Browns diss. Cleveland couldn’t win on his timeline and Garrett would’ve done anything to force a trade. Or at least, he would’ve until the Browns paid him a 4-year, $160 million extension.
Upon signing his new deal, Garrett re-framed his comments as a productive conversation with general manager Andrew Berry. And if you want to call this leadership, I’ll listen.
Star players can, in fact, hold their bosses accountable. Garrett has earned the right. And in voicing his displeasure. he spoke for both his fans and teammates.
But to paraphrase Schwartz, who quoted the Spiderman movies during Wednesday’s media session, such power brings more responsibility. Such a contract carries high expectations. Schwartz meant in-season production, but why would offseason standards be different?
OTAs may be labeled “voluntary,” but linebacker Jordan Hicks, who turns 33 later this month, understands his presence is important. Eleven years in, Hicks has little to gain from pad-less practices. The players around him, on the other hand, can learn plenty by picking his brain.
“The middle linebacker position is going to be a natural leadership position,” Hicks said. “It’s going to be calling the plays... I think it’s important for me to be around.
“Every team is different. We got new faces, new guys, young guys, older guys that I’ve seen before, that I’ve never met. I think it’s important to be out here and get to know them and just be a part of the locker room.”
So does All-Pro cornerback Denzel Ward, a 2024 team captain (alongside Garrett) who prides himself on participating in the entire offseason program. Around this time last year, reporters asked Ward why. Consider his answer before arguing Garrett’s absence is meaningless.
“I think that the Browns, they drafted me to be on this team. They drafted me to be a leader on this team,” Ward said last June. “And that’s the way that I show my leadership, coming to OTAs regardless of if I’m a rookie or I’m a veteran in the league. I just try to come in and help show the guys what it’s supposed to look like and how it’s supposed to go and if they got questions, (I answer them).
“But I’m still out here working on my game as well. And I mean, what better way to come out here and do that with your guys and your coaches and everything. So (I’m) just out here learning, out here trying to get better, just trying to set a great example.”
To reiterate: The Browns don’t have a (public) problem with Garrett working from home. Stefanski says he respects players’ decisions on these matters. Schwartz trusts that Garrett trains hard “wherever he is.” And Hicks says Garrett will “show up when he’s needed.”
Remember: He can hit a blocking sled anywhere, and nobody wins games in June.
Besides, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson missed Tuesday’s practice in Baltimore. Tom Brady skipped more voluntary programs as he aged. If franchise quarterbacks can be excused, why can’t Garrett?
Because Jackson and Brady had already established winning traditions. The Browns are building something new, and they could use their best player’s help.
But they don’t require it yet, so Garrett doesn’t need OTAs.
When the culture crumbled last season, he was happy to lend his voice. Now that Cleveland is creating a new one ... crickets. We haven’t seen or heard from Garrett since he discussed his new contract.
Reminds me of a question he fielded during that press conference: Does this new deal come with increased responsibility?
“Not in my mind,” Garrett said then. “I’ll continue to be the person that I have been, and I think just being that constant leader, I don’t think you can put a dollar sign on that at any time. Leaders come from guys who are undrafted to guys who are the highest paid. It doesn’t take a playmaker to be a leader, nor does it take, like I said, a dollar sign. So (I will) continue to learn to be more and more of leader every year and every day.”
Every day required of him, that is.
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