Myles Garrett hasn’t met the moment for the Cleveland Browns after he was handed a $160 million extension to end his holdout earlier this offseason.
Cleveland.com’s Jimmy Watkins believes Garrett’s latest speeding ticket, his eighth since arriving in Berea, was not only a betrayal of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s request to be a leader, but a bad football move for the franchise.
Watkins also linked Shedeur Sanders’ repeated speeding tickets. Sanders and Garrett have been growing close in the locker room since the former’s selection in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft.
“When Jimmy Haslam gave Myles the largest non-quarterback contract in the NFL earlier this offseason, after, by the way, Myles spent the entire offseason trying to get out of Cleveland, Jim Haslam made one request with your actions and your practice habits: Can you show us more leadership? His practice habits are mostly fine. He's a great player, but he did skip OTAs at a pretty crucial point of the offseason this year,” Watkins said.
“The Browns are trying to rebuild a broken culture. You probably want your face of the franchise around for that. And this ticket is his eighth speeding ticket since he got here in 2017. Of course, three years ago, Miles got in a serious car accident. He said that he got lucky; he felt like he had a guardian angel. It was supposed to be a wake-up call for him.
“Few years later, wake up. He got another speeding ticket for going 100 miles per hour. The 29-year-old face of the franchise is having the same issues as the 23-year-old rookie quarterback Sanders, who got two speeding tickets earlier this offseason. That's not what Jimmy Haslam was talking about when he was talking about focus on leadership.”
Blaming Garrett for Sanders’ issues is a stretch. Sanders has always had a proclivity for fast cars, having been cited during his time at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Blaming him for not being more of a leader is fair game, especially after Haslam’s massive financial commitment for him to be one on and off the field.