NFL prospects give Browns star Myles Garrett his flowers

The Cleveland Browns are coming off a 5-12 season that was the club's fourth losing campaign in five years. That said, Browns pass-rusher Myles Garrett routinely generated positive highlights and headlines for the club en route to earning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award honors for the second time in what likely will become a Hall of Fame career. 

Garrett's efforts didn't go unnoticed by players who don't yet have NFL homes. 

NFL prospects seemingly would like to share a locker room with Myles Garrett

Recently, Greg Auman of Fox Sports asked 42 prospects attending this week's NFL Scouting Combine to name the non-quarterback they would build a team around. Of the 41 who gave a direct answer, 10 of them named Garrett. To compare, Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs finished a distant second with just three votes. 

Of course, Garrett set a new official single-season record of 23 sacks this past January. He also turned 30 years old in December, so one would think he'll still be in his physical prime for at least a few more seasons.

However, some have openly wondered if he could request a trade for the second straight winter due to frustrations related to the state of the Browns and/or because popular defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz resigned after he failed to win the Cleveland head-coaching job. 

Garrett signed a four-year, $160M contract extension that included $123.5M guaranteed last offseason. 

A surprise in voting?

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Gibbs received more votes than Atlanta Falcons star ball-carrier Bijan Robinson and Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers. StatMuse shows that Robinson led the NFL last season with 2,298 total yards from scrimmage. McCaffrey was second with 2,126 yards, while Gibbs was fifth with 1,839 yards. 

Last winter, Philadelphia Eagles running back and 2024 Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley was the top-picked player among prospects asked the same question. This time around, Barkley received just one vote. 

That goes to show how quickly things can change in the "what have you done for me lately" world of the NFL.