Getty Images Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns.
Houston Texans quarterback Kyle Allen has pleaded for Myles Garrett to “be nice to him,” but the Cleveland Browns star has no intentions of holding back against his former teammate.
Allen is drawing his first start of the season for the Texans and will have to be aware of Garrett — who has 10 sacks this season — flying off the edge.
“I’ll lay him down a little gentler than others,” Garrett said when asked about Allen’s comments, “but he’s going in the graveyard too.”
Garrett is referring to his QB graveyard he puts up at Halloween that features just about every quarterback he’s been able to sack in his career. While he has some history with Allen from their time at Texas A&M together, it sounds like he’s eager to add him to the list.
Jokes aside, it’s clear that Allen has a huge amount of admiration for Garrett and how his game has grown at the NFL level.
“He’s only gotten better since then,” Allen said. “The edge rushers are obviously really good. They’ve got a lot of stars over there. They’ve got a lot of good players. I think they pose a good challenge for us like last week. We’re going to work through it, get a plan together and get ready for them.”
Allen has played sparingly in his career with the Panthers, Commanders and Texans, notching 4,533 yards, 25 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
Garrett Battling Through Shoulder Injury
Garrett will not be 100% entering the matchup with the Texans, battling through a shoulder injury that had him in excruciating pain against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. At one point, he slammed his helmet on the turf along the sideline as he pushed through the injury.
“It hurt really bad,” Garrett said in his postgame press conference. “I almost thought I broke something initially, but just in my head there is no tomorrow. I can’t be focused on ‘I’ll get better tomorrow or let’s focus on the next game.’ There’s just the next play, and that’s all that’s in my mind. I have to continue playing regardless of how much pain I was feeling pain — pain I am feeling. There’s only one opportunity for greatness. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. I just wanted it really bad. I wanted it bad for us.”
Garrett will get a tough test against Texans veteran tackle Laremy Tunsil, who has been one of the best tackles in the league. He’s graded out at 82.3 on Pro Football Focus, with an elite pass-blocking grade of 90.8.
David Njoku Ruled Out Against Texans
The Browns will be without one key weapon on the offensive side of the ball in tight end David Njoku. He was the hero against the Bucs with a one-handed snag to force overtime but he was unable to practice this week and has been ruled out.
The injury is unrelated to the high ankle sprain that sidelined him earlier this season, per head coach Kevin Stefanski.
“It’s a different injury so we are just going to work through it and be smart,” Stefanski said.
In nine games Njoku has notched 41 catches on 52 targets for 464 yards and a pair of touchdowns.