Browns' Myles Garrett needs 4 sacks for the NFL single-season record. Could it happen vs. Titans?

Myles Garrett needs four sacks in the Cleveland Browns’ final five games to set the NFL’s single-season record.

Given the All-Pro pass rusher’s recent performance and this week’s opponent, there is a possibility it could happen on Sunday when the Browns host the Tennessee Titans.

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Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen, left, sacks Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) is sacked by Jacksonville Jaguars safety Andrew Wingard during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) celebrates after sacking San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy with defensive end Cameron Thomas (99) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

“Hopefully, he gets it. But I just pray he don’t get it this week,” Titans three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said.

Garrett has 19 sacks, and has his sights set on surpassing the mark of 22 1/2 shared by Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and Pittsburgh’s TJ Watt.

Titans rookie quarterback Cam Ward has been sacked a league-high 48 times. He has gone down at least twice in each of his 12 games, including eight games in which he has been sacked at least four times.

Garrett has had a sack in six straight games, amassing 15 in that span and reaching 19 on the season — the most ever by a player through 12 games since sacks became an official stat in 1982, and more than three teams this season: Cincinnati (18), Carolina (18), and San Francisco (16).

“Probably the best player that there is at that position. And he’s proved that game in and game out,” Ward said about Garrett. “So we got to do our job of not letting him affect the game each and every play. Try to keep a lid on it and just got to continue to execute our plays and just try to execute up and down the field.”

The two QBs behind Ward in sacks didn’t fare well against Garrett. Las Vegas’ Geno Smith was sacked four times, as the Browns totaled 10 sacks, their second most in a game since 1982. Garrett’s team-record five-sack game was against New England’s Drake Maye.

If Garrett gets four sacks on Sunday, he would be the first player in NFL history with three games with at least four in a season. He has had at least one sack in each of the four games he faced the Titans, including 3 1/2 in 2023.

Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said a team allowing the most sacks doesn’t drastically change the game plan.

“When the focus is on, not necessarily the number of sacks that they’ve given up, and when we look at film, a lot of times you’re looking at games that you think are similar or closer to where you’re playing, so maybe you don’t even see all those things,” he said. “I’d say this, like, when our D-line creates pressure, tackles for losses, just wreaks havoc — we’re at our best, and we need those guys to do that for us, not just in the pass game, but in the run game here also.”

Ward has been pressured on 37.5% of drop-backs. The Browns are fourth in the league with a 38.9% pressure rate.

Even though the Browns (3-9) are assured of their 23rd losing season since 1999, Garrett is still trying to maintain the same focus.

“We’ve got to continue to fight to win. Whoever’s our next opponent, they’re going to get our very best and let the chips fall as they may,” he said. “I can’t worry about how the end result’s going to be. Just worry about giving it your very best every play.”

The Titans (1-11) are the NFL’s only one-win team, putting them on pace to land the No. 1 overall pick for a second straight season. They’ve lost seven straight and need a win to avoid matching the fewest wins in a full season since 1973. The idea of landing the No. 1 pick to trade back for more talent to help Ward in 2026 is not something the Titans want to entertain with five games left.

“I can tell you no one in this building is talking about the No. 1 pick, and that’s outside noise, and we try to block outside noise out,” Simmons said. “ Right now we are trying to find out how to win another game, get win number two of the season.”

Shedeur Sanders looks for his first home win after the Browns struggled in last week’s 26-8 loss to San Francisco.

While Sanders has thrown behind the line on 24.6% of attempts, the highest for a Browns QB this season, he has four 30-plus-yard completions in two starts compared to two in the first 11 games.

Even though Sanders and Ward trained together during the draft, he doesn’t view this matchup as personal. “I’m just playing against another opponent. It’s another week. We face great quarterbacks every week. This doesn’t add anything,” Sanders said.

Simmons said he knows Sanders keeps plays alive by running around. Simmons isn’t really concerned with Sanders right now because he has a bigger challenge.

“My job is to have my quarterback’s back. I think we can help Cam out,” Simmons said. “When you look at all stats on defense, we haven’t had nothing but one strip-sack all year. It’s like, how can we get Cam in better position?”

The Titans held the Jaguars to five three-and-outs last week but couldn’t force a turnover.

Tennessee has been sacking quarterbacks with three last week for its fifth such game in the past six. The Titans have 21 sacks since Week 7, tying them for the fourth most in the NFL in that span. Yet Tennessee has only 10 combined takeaways, with five interceptions and five fumbles recovered.

Cleveland tight ends Harold Fannin and David Njoku, who have combined for 797 receiving yards. The duo also has five touchdowns when targeted 14 times in the red zone.

Tennessee has allowed the 10th-fewest tight end yards (560) and only four touchdowns (seventh fewest).

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy admiral commanding the U.S. military strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean told lawmakers Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but a stark video of the attack left grave questions as Congress scrutinizes the campaign that killed two survivors.

Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley appeared for a series of closed-door classified briefings at the Capitol as lawmakers conduct an investigation after a report that he ordered the follow-on attack that killed the survivors to comply with Hegesth’s demands. Legal experts have said such a strike could be a violation of the laws of military warfare.

“Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.

While Cotton, R-Ark., defended the attack, Democrats who were also briefed and saw video of the survivors being killed questioned the Trump administration’s rationale and said the incident was deeply concerning.

“The order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” said Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

Smith, who is demanding further investigation, said the survivors were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water — until the missiles come and kill them.”

The classified sessions with Bradley, alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, provided fresh information at a crucial moment as Hegseth’s leadership comes under scrutiny. But they did little to resolve growing questions about the legal basis for President Donald Trump’s extraordinary campaign to use war powers against suspected drug smugglers. So far more than 80 people have been killed in some 20 strikes.

Late Thursday, U.S. Southern Command announced it had conducted another strike against a small boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean following a pause of almost three weeks. There were four casualties, according to the social media post.

Lawmakers have not yet specifically authorized the use of military force against the alleged drug boats, and the Republican-controlled Congress has turned back attempts to put a check on Trump’s power to engage in the missile campaign, which Hegseth has vowed will continue. Several Democrats have called for Hegseth to resign.

Lawmakers want a full accounting of the Sept. 2 strike, which was the first in what has become a monthslong series of U.S. military attacks on vessels near Venezuela believed to be ferrying drugs. The Washington Post had reported that Bradley ordered the follow-on attack on the survivors.

But lawmakers who lead the House and Senate’s national security committees in Congress came away with different descriptions of what the two survivors were doing when they were killed.

Cotton said he saw them “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”

He said there were “several minutes” between the first and second attacks, which consisted of four missile strikes. He said it was “gratifying” that the U.S. military was taking “the battle” to cartels.

But Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.”

“You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel,” he said, and who “were killed by the United States.”

The survivors did not issue any distress call or other communications, though lawmakers were told it appeared the people had a hand raised, “waving” at one point during the attacks, Smith said.

Smith acknowledged there was likely cocaine on the boat, but he objects to the Republican administration’s rationale for continued attacks on alleged drug runners who may or may not be heading to the United States. “That’s really the core of the problem with all of this,” he said. “That incredibly broad definition, I think, is what sets in motion all of these problems about using lethal force and using the military.”

At the time of the attack, Bradley was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, overseeing coordinated operations between the military’s elite special operations units out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina. About a month after the strike, he was promoted to commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

His military career, spanning more than three decades, was mostly spent serving in the elite Navy SEALs and commanding joint operations. He was among the first special forces officers to deploy to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. His latest promotion to admiral was approved by unanimous voice vote in the Senate this year, and Democratic and Republican senators praised his record.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has described Bradley as among those who are “rock solid” and “the most extraordinary people that have ever served in the military.”

But lawmakers like Tillis have also made it clear they expect a reckoning if it is found that survivors were targeted. “Anybody in the chain of command that was responsible for it, that had vision of it, needs to be held accountable,” he said.

Underpinning Trump’s campaign against suspected traffickers is his argument that drug cartels amount to armed combatants because their cargo poses a threat to American lives.

Democrats are demanding the release of the full video of the Sept. 2 attack, as well as written records of the orders and any directives about the mission from Hegseth. None of the written orders or audio of verbal commands was shared with the lawmakers.

A White House Office of Legal Counsel memo providing a rationale for the strikes was dated after the fact, on Sept. 5. That memo remains undisclosed, and Democrats want it released.

Obtaining further information, though, will largely depend on action from Republican lawmakers, who have majority control of the committees, a potentially painful prospect for them if it puts them at odds with the president.

Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said that he and the Senate Armed Services Committee chair, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker, have formally requested the executive orders authorizing the operations and the complete videos from the strikes, among other items. The Trump administration has repeatedly denied their requests for basic information about the operation, Reed said.

Republican lawmakers who are close to Trump have largely stood by Hegseth and the administration’s decision to conduct the strikes.

Elsewhere, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and others see the U.S. military operation as part of an effort to prompt a government change in the South American country. Maduro on Wednesday acknowledged speaking last month by phone with Trump, who confirmed the call days earlier.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.