CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Myles Garrett will serve as the Browns’ game captain Sunday against the Steelers.
Before you begin to think it is the troll job of the season with Mason Rudolph set to start for the Steelers, head coach Kevin Stefanski made it clear that was not his intent.
“I do not want that to be misconstrued,” Stefanski said. “It is a big game, so I am sending the big guy out there, but it is in no way a call back to anything previously, so I just wanted to make sure that is clear.”
The Steelers officially downgraded Ben Roethlisberger, who did not practice this week, to out Friday.
The plan to make Garrett the captain for the finale dates back to Week 4 when Stefanski failed to realize Garrett wanted to be the captain for his return home to Arlington, Texas.
“I wanted to be the captain for the Cowboys game, me being from Dallas, and that kind of slipped the Coach’s mind and he asked me what game I wanted to be captain for, and I was like, ‘I want to be captain for the last one,’” Garrett said. “I knew it would be a big game for us. It was kind of early on, but I kind of ended up being right. This is a playoff game for us. If we win, we will be looking at a rematch with them so this is a big one.”
The attention will be on Garrett and Rudolph Sunday, 14 months after Garrett struck Rudolph in the head with his own helmet touching off a melee that led to over $1 million in fines between the teams and an indefinite suspension that lasted the remaining of the 2019 season for Garrett.
Since that fateful night, Garrett has done all he can to repair his image.
He was signed to a five-year, $125 million extension in July, was named to his second Pro Bowl this year and is the Browns’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
“Myles has been a great leader for this team,” Stefanski said. “He does it in his actions, and he does it with his words. He is just an important part of what we are trying to get done, and he understands that I am counting on him.”
Most importantly, Garrett has earned the respect of his teammates.
“Nobody in here is thinking about last year,” receiver Jarvis Landry said. “He has played tough. He has played hurt for us. He is our leader.
He is a guy who so many guys on this team respect and every guy on this team respect and in this organization. I know for this fact, if anybody is a Cleveland Brown, it is Myles Garrett, and he deserves this moment in his career with the things that he has done for this city and throughout his career here to be able to represent this team by going out and being a captain for this game.”
When Rudolph, who threw four interceptions in the 21-7 defeat, and Garrett line up for their first snap Sunday, the incident will be the furthest thing on the star defensive end’s mind.
Garrett, who is two sacks shy of tying the Browns’ franchise record for sacks in a single season, doesn’t plan to go easy on Rudolph either, within the rules of course.
“That won’t run through my mind at all,” Garrett said. “He’ll get hit just like everybody else. I’m not going to put a pillow underneath his head before I take him to the ground. But I’m not going to do anything extra.
“It’s just a game. It’s a Steelers game. It’s a divisional game. It’s an important game. But going against him, it changes nothing for me.”
Close Contact – Landry missed the first game of his career last week, ending a streak of 110 consecutive games played, after being a deemed one of five close contacts of linebacker B.J. Goodson who tested positive last Saturday.
The league’s protocols prevented Landry and four others from helping the Browns in a critical loss to the Jets.
“It is a tough thing on the players and the whole league. I think they tried to handle it the best way they could to keep things on schedule,” Landry said. “This is one of the things that again nobody anticipated on having to sit out or having to be a close contact and then having to sit out at all. We put these plans in place to make sure that we can play football, and that is what we wanted to do ultimately. They have been strict about those protocols. I know as a team and even myself and as a team, we have been trying to do everything or we have been doing everything that we can to make sure that it has not entered our building, and unfortunately, it has.”
Filling In – Stefanski’s chief of staff, Callie Brownson, will assume the duties of pass game coordinator/wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea Sunday.
“We will not miss a beat there,” Stefanski said.
Brownson is no stranger to stepping in on gameday. She filled in for Drew Petzing and handled tight ends coaching duties against Jacksonville in Week 12.
“Obviously, we do not want to be without Chad. Chad is an extremely important part of this operation,” Stefanski said. “Having Callie here – I have said it before – it is nice to have utility players… It is important to have them, and Callie is one of those people who can step into a dual role for us and run the personnel and the substitutions on gameday and work with the coaches.”
Landry praised Brownson’s contributions behind the scenes this season.
“I have said this and I will say it again, she is one of the reasons why that whole entire building goes the way that it goes,” Landry said. “I know she is excited about it. I know she is going be on her detail and make sure that we are doing the right things out there, getting the right personnel in the game and having the awareness that she has on the sideline to be able to get her job done and make sure we are doing ours.”
Injury Report – OUT: C Nick Harris (knee); QUESTIONABLE: LB Tae Davis (ankle), LB Sione Takitaki (ankle), OT Kendall Lamm (illness), RG Wyatt Teller (ankle); EXPECTED TO PLAY: LT Jack Conklin (knee), S Ronnie Harrison (shoulder), DT Sheldon Richardson (neck), LB Malcolm Smith (hamstring), C JC Tretter (knee), LT Jedrick Wills
The Link LonkJanuary 02, 2021 at 06:30AM
https://www.radio.com/923thefan/sports/cleveland-browns/myles-garrett-doesnt-plan-to-take-it-easy-on-mason-rudolph
Browns Notes: Myles Garrett named Sunday's captain, doesn't plan to go easy on Mason Rudolph - RADIO.COM
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