The offseason awards continue to stack up for DE Myles Garrett, as The Sporting News announced Garrett as the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year.
He earned the honor for the second consecutive year and is the first repeat Defensive Player of the Year winner since J.J. Watt in 2014-15. Garrett is also the first Browns player to be The Sporting News Player of the Year in consecutive seasons since RB Jim Brown in 1957 and 1958.
Garrett and each of the recipients for the Sporting News' awards were voted on by peers from around the league. Winners for Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year were selected by fellow players. More than 800 players cast ballots in voting this year, which set a record, and Garrett received almost a quarter of the votes.
The Sporting News, which was established in 1886, presented its first NFL Player of the Year in 1964 to Browns OT/K Lou Groza. Then, in 2008 The Sporting News began awarding Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year awards. Since its inception, five Browns players have earned accolades from The Sporting News.
Garrett has earned a number of accolades for his 2024 season – one in which he broke franchise and NFL records. He finished the season with the second-most sacks in the NFL with 14. He became the first player in NFL history to reach 14 or more sacks in four consecutive seasons. Garrett's 102.5 career sacks are also the most by a Brown all time.
He broke records in consecutive weeks during the 2024 season, as Garrett surpassed 100 career sacks in Week 16 and became the 45th player to do so in NFL history since 1982. Garrett also is the first player since 1982 to have 100 career sacks prior to his 29th birthday. Garrett turned 29 on Dec. 29.
Alongside his 14 sacks, he totaled 28 quarterback hits, had a league-high 22 tackles for loss and 84 quarterback pressures – the third-most in the league. He added one pass defensed, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
Over the course of the 2024 season, Garrett regularly faced double teams as opposing offenses tried to contain Garrett, seeing a career-high of 30 percent of pass rush attempts. His presence on the edge and effectiveness in the pass rush had teams trying to take Garrett out of the game.
"(If you) look at the pressure numbers and the times that he's getting double teamed and slides are going his way, that's the piece to me that I think is so impressive and remarkable is he's doing all this with getting all of the attention from the other team," head coach Kevin Stefanski said on Jan. 2. "It's like a degree of difficulty that he's able to lead the league in sacks and tackles for loss with all that attention. It should be impossible. So, that just speaks to the caliber he's playing at."
