CLEVELAND, Ohio – I’m much less interested in what Takk McKinley can do for Myles Garrett than what Garrett can do for McKinley.
The Browns’ second-tier McKinley signing (10 edge rushers who changed teams this season are earning more than McKinley’s $ 4.25 million one-year contract) revolves around what the Browns can do for the player. And then we’ll see what the player does for the Browns.
I think a lot has been done by joining the free agency with the idea that the Browns needed to add an expensive defensive side to join Garrett. The thought was that adding a guaranteed edge rusher would help Garrett, theoretically maximizing his skills by adding similar talent.
I would say that this move makes more sense. Add a player who will be helped by Garrett, and I know this is how the Browns are seeing it. Get a player with a less than one year contract who wants to work with one of the best in the game and anticipate that the player and the franchise will benefit from it. I think McKinley fits perfectly.
Garrett is a veteran now, entering the 5th year of his NFL career, and it makes sense to open Myles Garrett Pass Rushing School to any edge rushers who would like to add something to their game. Last season, the Browns had three players in their early 30s on the defensive line at the ends Olivier Vernon and Adrian Clayborn and facing Sheldon Richardson. He was also facing Larry Ogunjobi, a close friend of Garrett’s. The only one still in Cleveland is Richardson, and that could signal a transition for Garrett.
Let one of the best pass brokers in the league become a mentor. Let McKinley, and perhaps an edge rusher that the Browns chose in the first three rounds of the April draft, become your first projects.
Last year, there were 20 edge rushers in the league who had at least $ 10 million against the salary cap. Ten teams had one of them, and five teams had two of them. The Browns, with Garrett and Vernon, were one of five. Refusing the chance to sign an edge rusher that makes money with Vernon does not leave the Browns behind – that makes them typical.
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Players like Yannick Ngakoue (Las Vegas for $ 13 million a year), Matt Judon (New England for $ 13.6 million a year) and JJ Watt (Arizona for $ 14 million a year) were not hired to complement a player like Garrett . They were signed to be this team is Garrett. And there is an abundance of edge-rusher exchanges taking place. Arizona signed with Watt and lost Haason Reddick. Cincinnati signed with Trey Hendrickson and lost Carl Lawson. Tennessee signed Bud Dupree and is likely to lose Jadeveon Clowney.
If Garrett and McKinley are the Browns’ main defensive tips this season, most playoff teams would accept that. And the Browns are still going to add there, in one way or another.
There is a legitimate chance that McKinley will be able to play as a $ 10 million player a year, although he has not played so far in four seasons. He was in the NFL Draft 2017 with Garrett, and if you danced with the idea of the Browns going from Garrett to No. 1 to take a quarterback, and then going to the defense with your other first-round pick at No. 12, then McKinley appeared on the radar. There may be an alternate universe where the Browns go to Mitch Trubisky-McKinley or Patrick Mahomes-McKinley with that first round combination. Instead, McKinley was No. 26 for Atlanta.
McKinley is and has always been seen as a highly motorized player, and his commitment was clear. At the NFL Combine, he listed his favorite Ramen pasta flavors, explaining why he always had a soft spot for what used to be a low-cost childhood meal. He uploaded a photo of his late grandmother to the NFL Draft stage when he was chosen. He made it clear how much he wanted to succeed for himself and his family, and I don’t think his career went as he hoped. He looks like a player waiting for a chance to reveal what he still might be. I think he will embrace the practice every day with Garrett, a colleague two months younger than McKinley, who has accomplished what McKinley is chasing.
Of course, he is not Garrett. McKinley lacks Garrett’s flexibility and bends, and his range of fast-paced movements doesn’t seem to be very diverse. Nobody gets the ball better than Garrett, but McKinley is very good in that area. I can imagine normal scenarios in which Garrett breaks a pocket and McKinley helps clean up the mess and receives credit for the dismissal. If McKinley posts the best of his career in bags (there are currently seven in 2018), Garrett may have forced more than a handful of them.
Great. That will work.
Something happened in Atlanta with McKinley, who was drafted while the Falcons were coming out of a Super Bowl appearance. They made it to the playoffs when he was a rookie, then it was 7-9, 7-9 and 4-12. He was released during that 4-12 record last season, after the Falcons fired coach Dan Quinn, and after McKinley criticized the team on Twitter for not honoring his switch request. He got hurt after an early and obviously frustrated groin injury, and then he jumped through some resignation claims while undergoing physical exams.
This is no excuse for McKinley. This explains why it was available for just over $ 4 million and only for a one-year commitment. He was a frustrated guy on a losing team with a groin injury. All of this can be easily fixed.
For the first three years of their careers, McKinley and Trey Hendrickson of New Orleans were similar players. According to PFF statistics, during the first three seasons, this is how they compare:
Pass snapshots: McKinley 1042; Hendrickson 642.
QB pressures: McKinley 122, Hendrickson 63.
PFF credited bags: McKinley 20; Hendrickson 9.
Degree of PFF per season: McKinley 68.8, 61.5, 67.0; Hendrickson 60.6, 65.1, 68.3.
Then, in year 4, McKinley got hurt and got mad at a bad team that lost the 2019 rookie Vic Beasley, and he had 56 passing rush snaps and a sack. Hendrickson, on a playoff team while playing with the defensive side of Pro Bowl Cameron Jordan as the most dangerous player on the line, had 384 rush snaps and 14 sacks. The PFF also determined that 11 of Hendrickson’s 14 bags were “unlocked, cleaned or chased”.
McKinley signed in Cleveland for a year and $ 4.25 million. Hendrickson signed in Cincinnati for four years and will count against the $ 12.5 million limit this season and $ 14.5 million the following year, before the Bengals could reasonably go out of business. Hendrickson cost three times as much. We will be back in a year and see who was the best player in 2021. I like McKinley’s chances.
I watched one of his best games in recent years to get a glimpse of McKinley, knowing that he hasn’t maintained that level throughout his career. I chose your highest PFF score in 2019, week 14 against Carolina. There was energy and explosion in his game that looked like refinement. In one move, he hit the right tackle, was chipped by running back Christian McCaffrey, spun away, dived and missed the ankles of quarterback Kyle Allen, who was escaping from his pocket. McKinley hit the grass in frustration.
He picked up a bag in a late race, going through the tackle and a second player before diving into the quarterback. He added a second sack when his haste won the tackle, but he was pushed past the pocket, and when Allen stepped forward, McKinley stopped and turned to him for another 8-yard loss. The ball bounced after the whistle, and McKinley picked it up and advanced it on the field for 25 years, enjoying the Atlanta win.
I think he will have more fun winning in Cleveland than in the NFL. I think he will be more motivated to see Garrett working towards greatness every day. And I think the Browns can have a defensive side of $ 4.25 million, which they will play as if they were winning a lot more.
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