Cleveland Browns

Browns defensive end Myles Garrett has sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow plenty of times in his career.

But if Garrett brings down Burrow during Sunday’s season finale, it’ll be historic, as Garrett needs one sack to capture the NFL’s single-season record.

Garrett did not register a sack against the Steelers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers last week. Garrett remarked after Cleveland’s win that it appeared Pittsburgh was more concerned about not letting him get the sack record than winning.

Asked about his approach to facing Garrett in Week 18, Burrow noted there are situations where taking a sack might be his best option.

“Yeah, I’m certainly not going to overcompensate either way,” Burrow said in his press conference. “I’m not going to go out of my way to not let him get the record. And I’m not going to go out of my way to let him get the record either. I’m going to go and play football.

“There’s going to be situations that a sack is the best of the bad outcomes of that play, and maybe I take one. And there’s going to be other situations that I’m about to get sacked and I need to throw it away in that situation. Such a situational game that I don’t think you can go in thinking one way or the other. Every play is so different.”

Being divisional opponents, Burrow has a better idea than many other QBs what makes Garrett so effective.

“He’s more athletic than everybody else on the field — bigger, stronger than everybody else,” Burrow said. “He has a mindset that he’s not too high or too low at any point, which is pretty unique for a defensive lineman. I think he’s probably got a unique mindset as far as that position goes. But it’s one that you can appreciate.

“He’s a guy that I’ve kind of gotten to know over the years and I like him as a person. He takes his job very seriously and is a guy I have a lot of respect for.”

And if Garrett happens to bring Burrow down, he acknowledged that won’t be out of the ordinary.

“He’s gotten me a lot,” Burrow said with a chuckle. “He’s gotten me a lot.”

Bengals running back Chase Brown missed Wednesday’s practice with an illness.

Brown has played in all 16 games this season, rushing for 947 yards and six touchdowns on 219 carries. He has never had a 1,000-yard season, rushing for 990 yards last season.

The Bengals saw five other players sit out the final Wednesday practice of their season.

Tight end Cam Grandy (chest), defensive tackle B.J. Hill (ankle), wide receiver Charlie Jones (ankle), cornerback Josh Newton (hamstring) and defensive end Joseph Ossai (ankle) spent the session rehabbing.

Center Matt Lee (knee) was limited. He is in his 21-day return-to-practice window.

Wyatt Teller’s 2025 season has come to an end.

The Browns announced on Wednesday that Teller has been placed on injured reserve.

Teller has been dealing with a calf injury.

A three-time Pro Bowler, Teller started 13 contests in 2025, playing 91 percent of offensive snaps and 12 percent of special teams snaps in games played.

The Browns announced the previously reported move of signing Kingsley Eguakun off of Detroit’s practice squad as a corresponding move.

The Browns have added an offensive lineman and the Lions may need to find a different starter at center for their season finale.

Per NFL Media, Cleveland is signing Kingsley Eguakun off of Detroit’s practice squad.

Eguakun had started the last two games at center for the Lions with Graham Glasgow still dealing with the effects of a knee injury.

Eguakun, however, struggled in last week’s Christmas Day loss to the Vikings, with botched snaps and a critical false start.

Having entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2024, Eguakun has appeared in four games for Detroit — all this season.

The Browns will finish their 2025 campaign against the Bengals on Sunday.

Kevin Stefanski will finish his sixth season as head coach of the Browns. The question is: Does he get a seventh season?

Stefanski declined on Monday to address his future, saying he is “privileged to have this job” when asked whether he wants to continue with the team beyond this season.

“As you can imagine, my sole focus is on this game versus Cincinnati,” Stefanski said, via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN.

The Browns are 7-26 the past two seasons, casting question about Stefanski’s job security. He twice has won coach of the year honors but has a 44-56 regular-season record and a 1-2 postseason record.

Stefanski signed an extension before the 2024 season as did General Manager Andrew Berry.

Stefanski was asked whether he had any discussions with ownership or has been given an indication about how the Browns will address his future.

“I understand the question, but I never get into those type of discussions,” he said.

If Browns defensive end Myles Garrett sets the single-season sack record in Week 18, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will likely be on the receiving end of the record-breaking play.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor confirmed at a Monday press conference that Burrow will get the start for the team in their final game of the regular season. Taylor said that Burrow gives the team the best chance to win by way of explaining why that’s the case.

Burrow missed most of this season with a toe injury before returning to lead the team to a win on Thanksgiving. He played one of the worst games of his career two weeks later, but has rebounded with 614 yards and six touchdowns in back-to-back wins in the last two games.

That gives the Bengals a chance to finish the season with a three-game win streak, but it won’t solve their three-year streak of missing the playoffs and that’s an issue of more significance than Week 18 as Taylor moves forward in his current role.

Ryan Kennedy is a Lions fans. The Ravens are currently Ryan Kennedy fans.

The man who provoked Steelers receiver DK Metcalf to approach the stands, grab his shirt, yank him down, and throw a hand/fist toward his face (possibly grazing it) has potentially derailed Pittsburgh’s season, opening the door for Baltimore to swipe the AFC North.

Obviously, Metcalf should have restrained himself. Even more obviously, the Steelers should have had someone/anyone in place to intervene before Metcalf got to Kennedy. The team has no one to blame but itself for failing to stop Metcalf from approaching, and then initiating contact with, an opposing fan.

Metcalf’s absence was evident on Sunday in Cleveland. The series of plays at the end of the game included three straight passes thrown by quarterback Aaron Rodgers to former Packers teammate Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Two had no chance at all. One would have required the kind of athleticism that Valdes-Scantling wasn’t able to display in the moment. And, each time, Valdes-Scantling was blanketed by Browns cornerback Denzel Ward.

If it had been Metcalf facing single coverage on the right side of the formation, the chances of at least one of those throws connecting would have been significantly higher. And it may not have even come down to that drive, if Metcalf had been available throughout the game. (In the Week 5 game against Cleveland, Metcalf had four catches for 95 yards and a touchdown.)

Metcalf will serve the second leg of his two-game suspension on Sunday night, against the Ravens. In Week 14, he had seven catches for 148 yards at Baltimore.

Which receiver on the Pittsburgh roster can come close to replacing that production? On Sunday, Adam Thielen got the start as the Steelers opened with three tight ends on the field. Thielen participated in 86 percent of the snaps. Three other receivers played: Valdes-Scantling (82 percent), Scotty Miller (64 percent), and Roman Wilson (14 percent). (Ben Skowronek played special teams only, and Calvin Austin III was inactive due to a hamstring injury.)

Miller finished with three catches for 25 yards. Valdes-Scantling had three catches for 21 yards, on nine targets. Thielen had two catches for 14 yards. Wilson had zero targets, even though coach Mike Tomlin specifically mentioned Wilson as a candidate to step up in place of Metcalf, with Tomlin’s T-shirt worthy line: “One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity.”

Metcalf’s misfortune has damaged Pittsburgh’s opportunity to make the playoffs. Will it be any different this weekend? (Former Rodgers teammate Allen Lazard remains available.)

There’s some good news for Week 18. Rodgers may not be rushing his throws as much in the regular-season finale, given that he won’t be seemingly obsessed with not joining the record books as the quarterback whom Myles Garrett sacked for the single-season record.

The Steelers had the AFC North in their grasp. And they blew their chance, losing to the previously 3-12 Browns.

It’s not the first time the Steelers have fallen flat in recent years against a bad team.

Via Doug Clawson of CBS Sports, the Steelers are winless in their last five games against teams that entered the contest eight or more games below .500. That ties the longest streak in NFL history.

The Steelers lost to the 2-10-1 Bengals in 2020 (Pittsburgh entered the game 11-2), they tied the 0-8 Lions in 2021 (the Steelers entered the game 5-3), they lost to the 2-10 Cardinals in 2023 (Pittsburgh was 7-4), they lost to the 2-10 Patriots the very next week in 2023 (7-5), and they lost on Sunday to the 3-12 Browns (9-6).

While many players have changed since 2020, there are some constants, both on the roster and the coaching staff (starting with, obviously, head coach Mike Tomlin). The situation speaks to the habit of overlooking a subpar foe, losing just enough focus to not beat them.

Fortunately for the Steelers, they won’t be facing any more teams with bad records, either next week or in the postseason, if they can beat the 8-8 Ravens and qualify for the playoffs. It the Steelers lose to Baltimore, the Steelers can blame themselves for another failure to handle a team with a very bad record.

Browns defensive end Myles Garrett alleged earlier this season that the Steelers are coached to hold him rather than give up a sack to him. Multiple Steelers players denied it last week before Sunday’s game.

The Steelers were not called for a holding penalty, and Garrett didn’t get a sack to set the NFL’s single-season sack record.

After the Browns’ 13-6 win over the Steelers, though, Garrett said what everyone saw: The Steelers’ obsession with Garrett getting the record came at the expense of winning the game.

The Steelers had 291 total yards, with Aaron Rodgers throwing for only 168, his fifth-lowest total this season. He averaged only 3.5 air yards on his 21 completions and was 4-of-15 on passes thrown more than 5 air yards downfield, per ESPN, though he did play without wideouts DK Metcalf and Calvin Austin. Rodgers’ average time to throw was 2.39 seconds, his fourth quickest in a game this season.

The Steelers lost, but they did a good job protecting T.J. Watt’s record.

“I mean, to an extent [the Steelers had the record on their mind]. I feel like they were more worried about keeping me away from Aaron than getting the win, and I think that’s what came back to bite him,” Garrett said, via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN. “So, they’ll have to fight it out with Baltimore next week. But I’m just proud of the guys for fighting and getting this one. That’s the main thing, and I’m always going to keep it that.”

Garrett has 22 sacks, a half-sack from the record of 22.5 shared by Watt and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan. He ended Sunday’s game with a tackle, a quarterback hit and three quarterback pressures.

The Steelers used double teams and chips to keep Garrett from sacking Rodgers.

“We didn’t do anything against Myles that we don’t normally do against Myles,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “The sack records are irrelevant. We got to minimize him if we want to engineer victory. We did the same thing last time we played him. I didn’t think he had any sacks in that game either. And so, we didn’t take a different approach because of the gravity of the record. It’s just standard business when you’re playing these guys and him.”

The Browns close out the season against the Bengals in Garrett’s final chance for the record, while the Steelers will play the Ravens for the AFC North title in a win-or-go-home game. The Steelers would have clinched the division with a win over the Browns.

Garrett remains confident he will end up with the record, though it won’t come at home.

“Absolutely. Why shouldn’t I be?” he said. “Four more quarters, 60 more minutes. However you want to draw it up, it’ll get done.”

Myles Garrett did not get it done on Sunday.

With a shot to break the single-season record, Garrett did not record a sack in the Browns’ victory over the Steelers on Sunday, keeping him at 22.0 for the 2025 season.

It was the first time since Cleveland’s Week 6 loss to Pittsburgh that Garrett did not record at least a half-sack in a game.

Garrett came close to bringing down quarterback Aaron Rodgers a few times, but the only sacks recorded were by safety Grant Delpit and defensive end Alex Wright.

The Steelers largely stayed away from Garrett, with the defensive end recording one total tackle and one QB hit.

Garret will have one last shot to break the record when the Browns play the Bengals in Week 18. Garrett’s registered 15.0 career sacks against the Bengals — the most he has against one opponent.