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Myles Garrett says he thinks a win over the Chargers will make the Browns 2-6

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Myles Garrett says he thinks a win over the Chargers will make the Browns 2-6

BEREA, Ohio — If the Browns beat the Chargers on Sunday to improve to 3-6, Myles Garrett says it won’t be “Hasta La Vista, baby” anytime soon for the Browns.

“I think it will completely change the atmosphere around the team when we get it,” Garrett said Friday. “So I think it’s very important for us. We’ve got to go ahead and make sure that happens, go into the bye week, recover, get some guys back and then move on to the next few weeks knowing that it’s almost all playoff games.”

Garrett credits the Browns’ 29-24 loss to the Ravens last week, which improved them to 2-6 after a five-game losing streak, with breathing a little new life into them.

“It was a nice breath of air, but we are still on the table,” he said. “We need to get another one before we get this thing to where we’re going. We have to start a streak. I think this locker room is really going to change and the guys really understand what we have and what we can do this season.”

The Browns need only look to two teams that started 3-6 last season and made the playoffs: the Packers and Rams.

The Packers finished 9–8 and finished second in the NFC North and qualified for the playoffs as a wild card team. They beat the Cowboys in the wild card round and then lost to the 49ers in the divisional round. The Rams finished second in the NFC West with a 10–7 record, including a 36–19 win over the Browns in December, and also emerged as a wild card team. They lost to the Lions in the wild card round.

Moreover, three NFL teams have made the playoffs after starting 2-6: the 1970 Bengals, 2020 Commanders and 2022 Jaguars. This has become easier as the NFL expanded from two wild card teams to three in each conference in 2020.

“We look at our track record and know we have a long way to go,” Garrett said. “It’s just one at a time. Take it one training day at a time, one meeting at a time. Take it all to game day and get it done.”

That’s one of many reasons he hopes the Browns don’t trade their top running back for fellow defensive end Za’Darius Smith, who has been linked to trade rumors with the Lions and other teams. With five sacks, Smith has one more than Garrett.

“Well, I’m going to keep playing with Z, so I’m not too worried about throwing out pleasantries and compliments right now,” he said. “I can tell him about it at the end of the year. (But) I see him doing the same thing he did last year. Just playing the plays that eluded him, that eluded him last year. We talked all year about all these plays that we had on hand that we could turn into big plays, and he turned them around.”

This story will be updated.

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