Mike Tomlin Praises ‘Game-Wrecker’ Myles Garrett Before Steelers/Browns Game

The Pittsburgh Steelers will look to stop Myles Garrett from making history when they play the Cleveland Browns this Sunday.

Garrett enters the Week 17 matchup with 22 sacks, putting him one away from setting a new single-season record. Mike Tomlin knows that containing the All-Pro pass rusher won’t be an easy task.

Per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, Tomlin called Garrett “a slam-dunk Defensive Player of the Year” on Tuesday. The Steelers head coach is paying extra attention to Cleveland’s star ahead of the AFC North tilt.

“Myles Garrett, I outlined him,” Tomlin said, via FOX 53. “He had five sacks the last two times we’ve been there. He’s a game-wrecker. He provides the wave that others ride. And particularly in that environment when you’re working on silent counts and one-dimensional passing circumstances, etc., it is significant.”

Tomlin is probably right about Garrett winning Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in the last three seasons. Named to his sixth straight Pro Bowl on Tuesday, the 29-year-old has tormented offenses with 47 pressures, 36 quarterback hits and a career-high 32 tackles for a loss in 2025.

Garrett has notched at least half a sack in the last nine games since the Steelers held him without one in a Week 6 victory at Acrisure Stadium. Yet as Tomlin noted, Garrett compiled three sacks when they met at Cleveland last season and two in 2023.

The 3-12 Browns have little left to play for, so the defense could be hyper-focused on getting Garrett a sack to pass T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan in the record book. Sunday’s game starts at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.

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