Myles Garrett Shrugs Off Talk About Rivalry With Baker Mayfield

Myles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns will play the Carolina Panthers in Week 1 of the new NFL season on September 11.

For the three-time Pro Bowl champion, finding out that former teammate Baker Mayfield would be the starting quarterback of the Panthers was hardly surprising.

"Did I expect him to win that job? I didn't really think about it, whether he won it or not I knew I had to play the Panthers. So I'm happy that he won it. I don't wish any ill upon him, but I wasn't expecting to be looking at any other quarterback," Garrett said a day after the Panthers announced Mayfield as their Week 1 starter via USA Today.

The Panthers formally announced Mayfield as their primary play-caller after indulging Sam Darnold in a battle for the position.

But since the trade that sent Mayfield to the Panthers, pundits had always envisioned him to be the team's main quarterback.

"Obviously, there's a lot of attachment there," Mayfield said to reporters. "I'm not going to sit here and be a robot and say it doesn't mean anything. It will.''

Mayfield and Garrett were former top picks of the Browns, something that helped them make just their second playoff appearance since the franchise's re-birth and win their first playoff game since January 1, 1995 during the 2020 season.

While things are now different, the 26-year-old defensive end clarifies that there is no rivalry between him and the 27-year-old quarterbac.

"He's my former teammate," Garrett stated.

"But I don't have any... there's no rivalry between me and him and there's no rivalry between the Panthers and the Browns. Yes, he was here but that doesn't mean I have an added sense of urgency to get to him. I want to play my best and whatever's in the cards, that's it for me. If I can help my team win. If I can put them in the best position to win, I'm going to do that and if I can get a couple sacks along the way, I would kind of enjoy that too."