At one point during the offseason, the vision of Myles Garrett standing behind a lectern on the first day of Cleveland Browns training camp felt like something from a pipe dream.
The 2023 Defensive Player of the Year was not shy about his intentions to be traded back in February as he made the rounds, going station to station at radio row during Super Bowl week. He would have much rather been playing in New Orleans to play in the big game, which was the entire motivation behind his very public trade request and skewering of his current franchise.
In his mind, the Browns weren't good enough to compete for a championship, and weren't headed in a direction that gave him confidence they'd be trending that direction any time soon. And so, he wanted out.
Until he didn't.
Just days before the new league year began in March, Garrett conceded in his standoff with the franchise, accepting a massive contract extension worth $160 million over four years that, at the time, made him the highest-paid non-QB in football.
And so there he was, addressing the media on the first day of training camp at the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on Wednesday, and establishing a lofty set of expectations for the team and himself.
"I mean, I expect to get to the Super Bowl," Garrett asserted on Wednesday. "That's our expectation every year. I expect to run back to Defensive Player of the Year, so keeping both those things in mind, I have to be the very best player I can be every single day, whether we're practicing or playing. As soon as I step in the building, I have to be best version of myself and the best leader I can possibly be."
Such a bold statement is nothing new for Garrett. Despite his inflammatory stance on the team's future several months back, chasing championships is always Garrett's goal. He's also one of the only players on the roster who can directly sway the results on the field. That's not lost on the now 29-year-old.
"I have such high expectations for the team because I have such high expectations for myself," the eight-year veteran said. "The team's going to go as I go, I'm going to try to be the driving factor behind that and create a standard in which everyone has to chase every single day."
Outside of the organization, Cleveland's expectations are far lower than Garrett's. Many sportsbooks list the Browns' win total for 2025 around 5.5 or lower. Other betting options consider Cleveland as one of the favorites to finish the season with the No. 1 overall pick in next year's draft. That's hardly surprising on the heels of a three-win season.
Then again, it's the NFL, where quick turnaround can happen, maybe, more than any other sport.
"I expect to bounce back from last year myself and defensively and as a team so the standard doesn't change or at least it doesn't lower, it just raises them, improves," Garrett said. "I think we have guys who are older, understand both sides of the coin. Come from a really good season, come from really bad season. It can happen just like that, so you've got to take that into account every single day when you're training and getting to know your guys. The margins for this game are very thin."
Garrett can certainly help the Browns win in those margins. But as last year proved, the star pass rusher can't possibly do it all alone.
-1751100685-q80.webp "Bo Nix: Rookie Red-Zone Specialist Igniting Broncos’ Playoff Push")