The Cleveland Browns defense has not appeared elite after trading away reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t ultimately proven a good decision.

Garrett set the NFL record with 23 sacks in a single season in 2025 while also leading the league with 33 tackles for loss. However, he has played in just one game this season for the Los Angeles Rams, which he did in Week 1.

Garrett has been out since after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, and his new team just got more bad news on Monday, October 19.

“Rams DE Myles Garrett will not practice this week,” Nate Atkins of The Athletic reported via X. “So that would make six straight games he’s missed with his knee injury.”

Todd Monken Won’t Acquiesce That Browns Defense Better Without Myles Garrett

Garrett’s injury would be a considerable blow to the Browns as well, were he still on the roster. Though, oddly enough, Cleveland’s defense has not actually missed him all that much — at least not yet.

While the Rams (2-4) entered the year as Super Bowl favorites, the Browns (4-2) began the campaign as among the most likely teams to finish at the top of the draft order and land a franchise QB in the 2027 class. But through six weeks, Los Angeles and Cleveland have turned those expectations on their proverbial head.

A reporter asked Browns head coach Todd Monken on Monday why the defense is “better” in 2026 absent Garrett, to which Monken immediately pushed back.

“Well, I’m not going to say that. You said that,” Monken clarified regarding the notion that Garrett’s absence has somehow made the Browns defense better, which is logically absurd. “It’s the same scheme, but it’s a different coordinator. We’re calling it different. There’s different things that we’re doing on the back end, which I think has really added something to where we’re at now.”

Browns Defense Performing Similarly Through 6 Weeks to Last Year’s Group, Which Finished 4th in NFL

One thing Monken can’t deny is the set of advanced statistics that ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi laid out on social media Monday that point to incredibly similar rates of success between this year’s Browns defense and the one that finished fourth in overall yardage allowed last season.

Browns defense with Jim Schwartz and Myles Garrett (2023-25):

• Yards per play: 5.0
• Sack rate: 8.1%
• Third-down defense: 33.8%
• Red zone defense: 63.4%
• Defensive success rate: 62.7%
• EPA per play: -0.15

2026:

• Yards per play: 5.0
• Sack rate: 8.1%
• Third-down defense: 39.1%
• Red zone defense: 43.8%
• Defensive success rate: 60.4%
• EPA per play: -0.08

Cleveland is currently 13th in the NFL in yardage allowed per contest (317.5).

Meanwhile, the Browns have afforded just 20.3 per game, which is good enough for seventh place. The team is also doing enough offensively to turn close, and often ugly, contests into victories in the win column.