Browns' Thomas: Garrett has a 'fire that's burning inside him to be great'

It may be early, but the leader of the Cleveland Browns locker room has liked what he's seen from the guy who will hopefully replace him one day.

After just a few weeks as a member of the Browns, Myles Garrett has made a solid impression on All-Pro left tackle Joe Thomas.

"I'm just impressed with his demeanor and his willingness to learn and his humbleness," Thomas told Dan Labbe of Cleveland.com on Tuesday. "But also you see that fire that's burning inside him to be great and I think those are the hallmarks of guys that have a chance to be really excellent football players."

Garrett has admitted that he can't fix the Browns on his own as the club looks to recover from a 1-15 season in 2016, but Thomas thinks that taking the edge rusher in this year's draft was the best move for the organization.

"It's an impactful player at a position of need," Thomas said. "And I think sometimes people reach for a quarterback at No. 1 and then it takes a long time to develop him and if they don't have the right system and the right people in place around them, sometimes it's hard for them to have that success."

Thomas and Garrett will likely be seeing plenty of each other in training camp as they line up opposite one another in scrimmages and positions drills. Thomas says the rookie has already shown an interest in learning about how to improve, and the left tackle will be more than happy to teach him a thing or two after a decade with the Browns.

"He's shown an interest in learning and I'm a player that really likes to try to help teach and impart any wisdom that I've gotten over the ages on some of those young guys," Thomas said. "So it will be fun for me, too, to be able to try to help as best as I can and try to get him to think like an offensive tackle and hopefully turn him into the great player I think he can be."