BEREA, Ohio -- Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett stood in front of a backdrop in the team's locker room, three days before his team faced the Las Vegas Raiders, and was asked about the defense's need to be dominant given the early struggles of the team's revamped offense.
"It's always our responsibility to be dominant," said Garrett, the NFL's reigning Defensive Player of the Year. "We have the players to do so and that's all about our expectations for ourselves. We come out there expecting us to win the game on defense every time we step on the field. We're going to play great when we put up 40 or when we put up 10. It is what it is. We have to make sure they put up less than we do."
The elite form that helped carry the Browns to a playoff appearance last season, though, has failed to carry over four games into the 2024 season. And with a looming matchup on Sunday against Washington Commanders (1 p.m. ET, Fox) rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and the hottest offense in the NFL, a throwback performance for Cleveland's defense is imperative as the offense finds its way.
Daniels, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 draft, is off to one of the best starts of any rookie quarterback in NFL history. He has completed a league-leading 82.1% of his passes, the highest completion percentage by a player in his team's first four games of a season. Daniels ranks fourth in QBR (73.3), third in yards per attempt (8.5) and second in rushing yards among quarterbacks (218). And he's led a Washington offense that has scored a touchdown or field goal on 23 out of 30 offensive drives, the highest rate by any team in its first four games over the last 45 seasons, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
In Daniels, last year's Heisman winner, one Browns defender sees similarities to another dual-threat quarterback with whom Cleveland has become well acquainted.
"I'm in my Lamar [Jackson] mindset," inside linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah said of preparing for Daniels.
After allowing the lowest QBR and competition percentage in 2023, the Browns defense has regressed in multiple categories, despite returning the majority of its 2023 contributors for a second year in coordinator Jim Schwartz's scheme.
Cleveland is allowing a greater QBR, completion percentage and more yards per play through the first month of the season. The defense is one of the best at getting off the field on third downs -- its 30.6% conversion rate ranks seventh -- but hasn't been as adept in forcing turnovers, which helped drive its top finish in 2023.
The Browns have forced just three turnovers (one has come on special teams), which is tied for sixth-fewest in the league. Last season, Cleveland was tied for fifth with 28 takeaways. Safety Rodney McLeod's 25-yard fumble return for a touchdown against the Raiders brought the Browns to within one possession in the fourth quarter. But those types of momentum-changing plays -- and the dominant stretches of play -- have been few and far between and may be necessary against an offense averaging 30.3 points per game.
Cleveland's struggles against the run will be tested, not only by Daniels but the entire Commanders offense. Washington ranks third in rushing yards per game (169.3) and sixth in yards after contact per rush (2.11). The Browns have struggled with missed tackles, allowing 2.24 yards after contact per designed rush, the worst mark in the NFL. The problem was especially egregious in the loss to Las Vegas, as Cleveland allowed a Raiders offense that had not topped 71 rushing yards -- and was missing All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams -- to total 152 on the ground.
"A lot of guys are going in with their shoulder trying to lay that big hit ... first guy's got to wrap up and slow the runner down and stop his momentum," Garrett said.
In 2023, as the Browns shuffled through five different starting quarterbacks and myriad injuries on offense, the team leaned on its defense as it won 11 games and returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
And as Cleveland's offense works through finding an identity and trying to get quarterback Deshaun Watson back to Pro Bowl form, bouncing back from a 1-3 start might hinge on the defense having a renaissance of sorts -- starting against one of the league's best offenses.
"We shouldn't have to get kicked in the teeth to start playing ... We're playing like a 1-3 defense right now," Schwartz said.