Myles Garrett a model many NFL Draft prospects look to follow

On Mar 2, 2023

Browns defensive end Myles Garrett reacts after a first-half play against the Saints, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Cleveland.

INDIANAPOLIS — He is not Myles Murphy’s namesake. However, ask the Clemson defensive end who is the model for the way he plays, and it just so happens to be someone with the very same first name.

“Myles Garrett,” Murphy said at the NFL Scouting Combine this week. “I’ve been watching him for years. I’ve been watching him since freshman year.”

Murphy certainly seems to share one trait with the Browns’ star edge rusher. He knows how to get to the quarterback, recording 17.5 sacks in a three-year career with the Tigers.

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Garrett, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back 16-sack seasons with the Browns. The 2017 No. 1 overall pick is the “official” all-time sacks leader for the franchise as well with 74.5.

Murphy, who’s been projected as a first-round draft pick in multiple pre-Combine mock drafts, is one of many edge rushers who arrived in Indianapolis this week with eyes on joining Garrett in the NFL when the draft takes place in late April. Many of them, like Murphy, have gotten to this point by trying to emulate what they’ve seen from Garrett since they were younger.

“I mean he’s very fluid,” LSU defensive end Ali Gaye said. “He’s very fluid with his moves. For a big guy like him to be bending and moving like that with that speed, it’s something that I wanted put in my game as well. I respect his game a lot and I’ve studied him well from the moment he stepped into the league.”

Notre Dame’s Brandon Joseph looking for help from friend Greg Newsome II

Safety Brandon Joseph spent his first three years in college at Northwestern. During the first two of those seasons, he developed a friendship with teammate Greg Newsome III.

Newsome departed Northwestern after the 2020 season, becoming the 26th overall pick in the first round by the Browns. Joseph would leave after the next season, only he would transfer to Notre Dame.

Now, Joseph finds himself on the precipice of joining his friend in the NFL. He was in Indianapolis this week participating in the Combine, while also talking about the advice he’s received from Newsome.

“He knows the standard that we played to at that time and he said just never lose that,” Joseph said Thursday at the Combine. “At Northwestern, man, Greg was the start of something great. Greg and (former first-round pick) Rashawn (Slater), that was the standard that they have over there. He said just never lose what we have over there, never lose that mindset, never lose that grit that you got from Northwestern.”