
Some NFL edge rushers are awesome to behold and a handful to stop for any O-linemen.
But for the Jets' young tackles preparing this week to keep one of the best edge rushers in the NFL away from their quarterback Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, it could be 95 "Myles" of hard road.
"Obviously, they've got 95," rookie RT Armand Membou said this week about his challenge when legendary Cleveland sackmaster Myles Garrett, who has made that Browns uniform number famous, lines up across from him. "He's a great player. They've got a couple of game wreckers up front. We've got to stop him."
"This is another tough defense," OC Tanner Engstrand said. "They're ranked high in a lot of defensive categories. ... Myles Garrett is an issue in and of himself as we all know, so we'll have to have a good plan for that. But we're looking forward to that challenge of course as always."
But how do the Jets gameplan a legend like Garrett? That will be a key to how they fare against the Browns.
In fact, the man who sometimes goes by the nickname "Superman" is an NFL action hero, and that was before his game two Sundays ago at New England. Even though the Patriots persevered and prevailed over the Browns, 32-13, Garrett made things dicey as the Pats struggled to protect QB Drake Maye. Garrett registered 5 sacks on the day, one of them a strip. That's the most in a game in Garrett's nine-year career, and it's tied for the third-most among NFL defenders in the last eight seasons.
He's now at 10 sacks for the season, one behind NFL leader Brian Burns of the Giants, and he's already reached double-digit sacks for the eighth year in a row and has nine more games to work on lifting that season total into the pass-rush stratosphere.
And Garrett doesn't give any offensive lineman a discount or a rest. While analysts note that his most productive pass rushes occur when he's lined up on his right edge, across from the opponent's LT, he moves to the left edge and sometimes to the interior of the DL to keep OCs and QBs guessing. Against the Patriots, he got his first 3 sacks of Maye off Cleveland's right edge and the last two off the Browns' left side.
So second-year LT Olu Fashanu will also be intricately involved in the Jets' design for holding Garrett. But neither NFL neophyte flinched at previous tests. Membou, right out of the NFL gate, drew Pittsburgh's T.J. Watt in the season opener. Watt was held to no sacks and no QB hits by the rookie and his teammates on the right side of the line. And an independent sack analyst says that Fashanu and Membou have each yielded just 1.5 sacks so far.
Membou, who came to the Jets off his no-sacks-allowed final season at Missouri before being selected seventh overall in the April draft, said his body and mind are feeling fine coming off the bye week.
"I see a lot of improvement. I'm starting to get more comfortable week by week," he said. What has improved most? "I would say my overall consistency and just my intellect of the game."
And he's ready to roll against Garrett. He boiled the challenge down to its basics.
"It's definitely crazy going against a guy of his caliber," Membou said. "I'm just going to have to be able to win my matchups."
Aaron Glenn took a longer view of his offense's challenge as the Jets attempt to secure their first two-game winning streak with AG as HC.
"You just take a look at their defense," Glenn said. "They have some key guys in key positions that are playing at a high level for them. Obviously, the D-end, Garrett, he's a really good player. The DB, [Denzel] Ward, damn good player. This is a sound, sound team that plays very aggressive, so we have to be on our P's and Q's when it comes to how we operate on offense."
Check out the best photos from the Thursday's practice at 1JD.













































































