Myles Garrett: Jameis Winston played his ass off

The Browns had been getting sub-par quarterback play all season long from Deshaun Watson.

But with Jameis Winston starting his first game after Watson tore his Achilles last week, Cleveland looked a whole lot different on offense.

The club scored at least 20 points for the first time in 2024, as Winston completed 27-of-41 passes for 334 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. And while Winston nearly threw a killer pick to Kyle Hamilton late in the fourth quarter, he came right back on the next play to find Cedric Tillman for a go-ahead, 38-yard touchdown with 59 seconds on the clock.

One of the club’s best players, Myles Garrett, said in his postgame press conference that he didn’t think “anything felt different” to lead to the win, since it was “the same guys, same team.”

But even if Garrett didn’t say it explicitly, there was a clear difference.

“I mean, obviously, Jameis played his ass off,” Garrett said. “He did a great job leading the offense. [Nick] Chubb came to play, he’s always consistent, and, man, it was just all around complementary team effort. Everybody was on their P’s and Q’s, and we played how we expect to play every time we step out there and fans responded in kind.”

Asked directly about Winston’s play, Garrett said that it was the same Winston they’ve known since the QB came into the league.

“Even before then he’s always had that same mentality,” Garrett said. “Works his behind off, plays the game hard, practices hard, expects a lot of himself. But with that expectation of himself, he also has for his teammates. But you’re able to do that when you push yourself so hard, when we see you grinding at practice, doing extra, staying late. So, we want to be able to hold on to each other, and that’s what we did.”

Garrett, Winston, and the Browns will stay home to play the Chargers next Sunday.