BEREA — Myles Garrett has high expectations for himself. The Browns All-Pro defensive end, though, doesn’t limit those high expectations to just own individual performance.
“I mean, I expect to get to the Super Bowl,” Garrett said as Cleveland opened training camp July 23. “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.”
The Browns could not have been farther away from the Super Bowl when the 2024 season ended with a thud on a January night in Baltimore. The loss closed out Cleveland’s 3-14 season, its worst record since going 0-16 in Garrett’s 2017 rookie season.
That season was followed up by months of uncertainty regarding exactly where Garrett would be playing in 2025. He came out on Feb. 3 demanding a trade to a contender, saying he didn’t believe the Browns were close to that point.
A four-year, $160 million extension in March helped bridge that public dispute and bring Garrett back into the fold. Now, he’s trying to turn that offseason frustration into preseason motivation.
“You got to channel it,” Garrett said. “I have such high expectations for the team because I have such high expectations for myself. 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.”
The perception of the 2025 Browns mirrors the reality that was the 2024 season. The team that won just three games and had originally had the No. 2 overall pick in April’s draft is seen by many national prognostications to not be much better win-wise — BetMGM sets their win total at a league-low 4.5 — and the top contender for pick No. 1 overall in the 2026 draft.
The case for that perception is one that even Pro Bowl guard Joel Bitonio, one of the Browns’ leaders, understands. He doesn’t agree with it at all, but he understands how people have arrived at the opinion.
“Because we played very bad last year,” Bitonio said. “We were disappointed. I think everybody was disappointed. I went 0-16, 1-15, 3-13. I feel like that was probably my most disappointed year just with what we had done the year before and the players we had. So, it was very frustrating. So I understand why the outside world wants to write us off because it makes sense from what you’re looking at the year before.”
Garrett, Bitonio and cornerback Denzel Ward are part of the Browns’ case to exceed expectations. They have a combined 11 Pro Bowls between them, while Garrett and Bitonio have six first-team All-Pro selections between them, along with Garrett’s 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.
Bitonio points out the number of returnees the Browns still have from their 2023 11-6 playoff team. Ward, who earned his fourth Pro Bowl nod last season, points to it just being a different season, so new year means new hope.
Garrett, though, sees a combination of all of those reasons.
“The fact that we came off such a down year and guys weren’t satisfied,” Garrett said. “Guys were really disappointed because they knew what we had in the locker room, within ourselves, and it wouldn’t be a letdown if this was the expectation, but it is because we know we have far more in the tank.
“We have a great core unit, a lot of young guys, and there’s a lot of juice to squeeze. So we’re going to continue to try to find the best ways to put guys in position to make plays for us, whether it’s offense or defense and even special teams, and I think we’ll really be able to turn the page this year coming up.”
The Browns are going to have to do that by navigating one of the league’s toughest opening six-game stretches. They open against the Cincinnati Bengals before playing at the Ravens, at home against the Green Bay Packers, at the Detroit Lions, against the Minnesota Vikings in London and at the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They’ll enter that coming off a training camp where they will have spent a substantial amount of time deciding between Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders to be their opening-day starting quarterback. That’s not to mention a variety of other holes that need filled by relatively young or unproven players, including several along the defensive line and at the offensive skill positions.
That’s the backdrop for why the Browns stressed the importance getting tougher during the offseason. Now that training camp is here, it’s about putting actions behind those words, because the start of the regular season provides no ability to ease into things.
“There’s no ramp up,” Ward said. “We’re getting straight to it, ready to get to work, and it’s gonna start fast. So it’s not really a ramp up, and I like it. It’s all about the work and working hard and pushing it to the limit, to the max, and that’s what we’re here to do.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ‘I expect to get to the Super Bowl’: Browns’ Myles Garrett won’t lower 2025 expectations
Reporting by Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
