Joe Thomas can differentiate good pass-rushers from great ones better than most, and the longtime Cleveland Browns left tackle believes rookie Myles Garrett is in a class of his own.
"Since I've been watching the NFL in the '90s, I've never seen a player that plays like he does," Thomas said Thursday, according to Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot. "The things he can do, and you saw it, he hardly played at all, he was playing on one leg and he had two sacks against a team that didn't really hang onto the ball and throw down the field all that often.
"They were kind of dinking and dunking and running the ball. To be able to get sacks like he did is pretty impressive, but it's not a big surprise for us on the offensive line because we've seen his ability week in and week out."
While Garrett's NFL debut in Week 5 couldn't help the Browns avoid their fifth straight loss, he showcased his otherworldly talents by recording a sack in his very first snap. He added another in the second quarter.
"It's great having him on my team,'' said Thomas. "Certainly I'd hate to have to block him. It was disappointing losing him early in the season because we saw what he was doing in practice and what he was doing in the preseason."
Garrett continued to be limited by the high ankle sprain that sidelined him for the first four games of the season, playing just 19 snaps, but said he felt closer to 100 percent during the week.
"If I have a good week of practices and it feels good, then I can get more snaps, play a little bit more in the fourth quarter and bring more to the table," Garrett said.
