CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward, the anchors of the Browns\u2019 premier 2025 defense, were both selected Tuesday for the 2026 Pro Bowl Games, with Garrett being voted as a starter. <\/p>\n
Four Browns were selected as alternates, with three of them coming from the star-studded 2025 rookie class. <\/p>\n
They are veteran safety Grant Delpit (special teamer), tight end Harold Fannin Jr., running back Quinshon Judkins and linebacker Carson Schwesinger. <\/p>\n
The Browns had other players, including left guard Joel Bitonio, who should\u2019ve received consideration as starters, backups or alternates, but the NFL is no longer naming alternates at offensive line and defensive line positions, or at punter, kicker and long snapper.<\/p>\n
Of the rookies who were named as alternates, Schwesinger, the leading candidate for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, deserved most consideration for selection as a starter. <\/p>\n
Garrett\u2019s seventh Pro Bowl selection is the most by a defensive player in Browns history and ties him for the fourth-most Pro Bowl appearances overall in franchise history. It also comes during one of the most productive seasons by a pass rusher the league has ever seen. Garrett is leading the NFL with 22 sacks and 32 tackles for a loss, numbers that place him squarely among the most disruptive defenders of the modern era.<\/p>\n
At 22 sacks, Garrett is tied for the third-most in a single season in NFL history and sits just half a sack shy of the league record, a milestone that has hovered over the final stretch of the season. He has one last chance to set the record at home when he faces Aaron Rodgers and the 9-6 Steelers on Sunday. Rodgers releases the ball quickly, but he\u2019ll be without leading receiver in D.K. Metcalf, who\u2019s second on the team with 59 receptions, but first with 850 receiving yards and six TD catches. <\/p>\n
Drafted No. 1 overall in 2017 out of Texas A&M, Garrett arrived in Cleveland with the reputation as a generational talent, and he\u2019s lived up to it. Over his nine seasons, he\u2019s broken almost as many sack records as he has quarterback gravestones in his front yard at Halloween. <\/p>\n
Yet the most important thing to him all season has been winning, and that continues despite the Browns falling to 3-12 with their 23-20 loss to the Bills on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou play for the man next to you,\u201d he said after the game. \u201cHe\u2019s giving everything to be here. It\u2019s an honor. It\u2019s a privilege. It\u2019s a blessing. I don\u2019t want you to take it for granted not a single second being in this league. Guys like Quinshon had no idea today would end up how it was. And so you never know when your moment\u2019s going to come and you never know where it\u2019s going to go. So keep your head up. Be proud of everything that you do and just keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Garrett is in San Francisco for the Pro Bowl Games in conjunction with the Super Bowl, he\u2019ll also likely win his second NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. <\/p>\n
Ward was selected to his fifth career Pro Bowl, surpassing Frank Minnifield (four) for the most selections by a Browns corner. Ward has anchored a defense that leads the NFL in fewest passing yards per game with 164.1. The Browns have gone 43 straight games without allowing a 300-yard passer, the longest active streak in the NFL and the longest streak by any team since the Colts went 52 games from 2005-08.<\/p>\n
Ward, who has missed the past two games with a calf injury, has lamented the fact that quarterbacks haven\u2019t been throwing his way this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a big respect,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the first year that I\u2019ve gone games without getting targeted. I just continue to work my craft, work my game and being a player that this team needs me to be to make it hard on opposing offenses to come my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwesinger\u2019s snub for being a starter or backup probably won\u2019t happen again after this year. Kevin Stefanski recently praised him for not missing any games after suffering a high ankle sprain, and touted him for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has Wolverine blood, I believe is what it says,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cThe kid\u2019s playing at an extremely high level. For him to come back from that injury and perform like he did, it was incredible to watch. And really, throughout that bye week, he just kept getting better and better, and you felt like there\u2019d be a chance of him playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo listen, I have not looked around the league at how other guys are playing and that type of thing, but I\u2019d be hard-pressed to believe there\u2019s a defensive player as a rookie that\u2019s playing better than him. And then factor in what he came back from, it\u2019s pretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Browns offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren, for one, believes Bitonio is hands-down a Pro Bowler this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t trade him for anybody \u2013 that\u2019s the bottom line,\u201d Bloomgren said. \u201cNot just how I\u2019ve talked about feeling about him in the meeting room and what he does for the Browns, but his play on Sundays has been awesome. And I don\u2019t know, like, I don\u2019t know what qualifies you for a Pro-Bowl, we\u2019ve talked about all these things, like, but if he\u2019s not it, they\u2019re not seeing what we\u2019re seeing. Like, he does so much for the Browns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing, like, that goes without being talked about much, you guys are at practice, you see, like, days he\u2019s practicing and day\u2019s he\u2019s not, and his ability, because of his experience, to just jump in there on Sundays and do his job when he couldn\u2019t walk on a Tuesday is crazy. Like, I\u2019m just blown away by him every week, the way that he fights for the Browns and his teammates. So much respect for Joel Bitonio.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, the Pro Bowl Games will move to Super Bowl LX Week in the San Francisco Bay Area. The event, on Tuesday, Feb. 3, brings the league\u2019s top players together for an AFC vs. NFC flag football showdown, coached by Pro Football Hall of Famers Jerry Rice (NFC) and Steve Young (AFC). San Francisco\u2019s Moscone Center South Building, which will be transformed into a dynamic flag football arena. Coverage of the Pro Bowl Games will begin on ESPN starting at 6:30 p.m. with the flag game at 8 p.m. The game will air on ESPN, Disney XD and ESPN Deportes.<\/p>\n