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          NFL Nation

          Steelers want to keep Ben Roethlisberger from Myles Garrett's shredder

          PITTSBURGH -- Ben Roethlisberger saw the Cleveland Browns' spoof of "The Office" featuring Myles Garrett shredding a picture of the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback. He's aware of Garrett's comments on draft day in 2017 that he's "coming for [Roethlisberger] first, to chop him down."

          Roethlisberger is less concerned with Garrett's words than his 272-pound frame coming off the edge in Sunday's season opener in Cleveland.

          "What an animal, a guy that just gets after the quarterback," Roethlisberger said. "We are really going to have to keep two eyes on him."

          Garrett gets his first crack at sacking Roethlisberger, who didn't battle the former No. 1 pick in last year's opener because of Garrett's hamstring injury.

          But the man tasked with blocking Garrett isn't feeding into the pass-rusher's verbal challenges. Left tackle Alejandro Villanueva will block and go home.

          "How old is he, 20 something? I'm 30, I've got two kids, one on the way," Villanueva said. "All these games are maybe a little irrelevant. I'm a dinosaur. I'm just trying to block."

          Villanueva followed Garrett's rookie performance that included seven sacks in 11 games and came away impressed. He noticed his professional approach, which came out this week as Garrett said he was having "a little bit of fun" with "The Office" spoof and is simply here to play football, according to Cleveland.com.

          Garrett played in last season's season finale in Pittsburgh and recorded a sack -- of Landry Jones. Roethlisberger didn't play since the Steelers had clinched home-field advantage in the playoffs.

          "A lot of players, maybe you come out of the first round and don't meet the hype," Villanueva said. "But I think he's a player that's making a name for himself. From a professional standpoint, I respect that. And obviously he's a really good football player, so you have to respect that as well."

          The Steelers' line has kept Roethlisberger mostly clean the past three seasons. Big Ben has averaged 19.3 sacks per year since 2015, easily the best stretch of his career.

          Roethlisberger has always made plays on the move but, at 36, isn't about to out-run Garrett. He hopes he doesn't have to try.

          "Not really much I can do. ... It's not like I can run a speed option at him and give him a fake or something," Roethlisberger said. "It's up to the line to block him and those guys."