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Myles Garrett eyes 'more freedom' under new DC

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett comes off a Pro Bowl season during which he totaled 13.5 sacks.

Impressive numbers, for sure, but making the accomplishment even more notable is he did it with basically two moves under then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

Now, Garrett eyes more sacks as he continues to develop while working with new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and coaching staff.

"I hopefully have more freedom to be the player I want to be," Garrett told Bleacher Report's Dan Pompei. "Gregg was more like: 'You win with these two moves. I don't want to see anything else out of you.'

"It's kind of hard with two moves. I feel like you can't always be so predictable. You can be as strong or fast as you want, but speed-chop and power move aren't always going to work. You have to mix up what you're doing. Sometimes you have to stutter step, sometimes you have to spin inside, you have to run some games. You have to have some freedom to throw different looks at them, and we didn't always have that."

Opposing blockers are officially put on notice, especially if they already had problems dealing with Garrett's ability to wreak havoc armed with just the speed-chop and power moves.

The 6-foot-4, 272-pound Garrett is already a physical specimen, and the Browns more than did their part to provide some help around him with the additions of defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson and outside linebacker Olivier Vernon, who has 51 sacks on his seven-year career.

Over his first two seasons in the league, Garrett has appeared in 27 games with 25 starts, totaling 75 tackles, 20.5 sacks and 47 quarterback hits.

So, with a new defensive coordinator, proven veteran playmakers around him and a view for more freedom to utilize moves as he sees fit, Garrett should thrive in his third season and cement a spot among the league's elite pass rushers.

Click here to read Pompei's full in-depth profile feature story on the Browns' defensive end.

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