Myles Garrett Is NFL Draft’s Best Overall Player, Smart Option with 1st Pick

If you followed Week 16 action live on Saturday, you know that at least for a couple of hours, the projected first overall pick exchanged hands. The Cleveland Browns, who started off the season 0-14, beat the San Diego Chargers, and due to strength of schedule tie-breakers, that led to the San Francisco 49ers having the worst record in the NFL, until they beat the Los Angeles Rams.

Every year, the media and fans of lower-level NFL teams have the conversation of “meaningless wins” for non-playoff teams versus the potential of tanking for a higher draft choice. That only makes sense if there is clearly one player who is a cut above the rest of the prospects coming out of the college football world.

This season, unlike the 2016 and 2013 draft classes, there is such a talent: Texas A&M’s pass-rusher Myles Garrett.

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Garrett has been a known commodity in the college football world, as he entered college as the fifth overall recruit in the 2014 high school class and the top line-of-scrimmage defender, per Scout.com’s rankings. Even when facing the nation’s top high school talent at the Under Armour All-American game, Garrett separated himself from the pack. ESPN.com’s Tom Luginbill called him “the Incredible Hulk.”

According to NFL Draft Scout, Garrett is going to measure in at the combine, should the junior declare, at over 6’4″ and 268 pounds, putting him around the size of Jason Pierre-Paul coming out of South Florida in 2010. Pierre-Paul, at the age of 22, was able to record a 16.5-sack season, making him one of the most productive young edge players in NFL history.

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It wasn’t until a back surgery and a firework incident that Pierre-Paul’s career derailed, though he has seven sacks in 12 games this season and is the eighth-highest paid defensive end in the NFL on a one-year “prove it” deal, per Spotrac.

When you look at Garrett’s Southeastern Conference career with the Aggies, watch what he’s able to do on the field from a traits standpoint and realize that he’s still just a 20-year-old, it’s not out of the question to project the pass-rusher as a potential answer to the “what could have been” that floats around Pierre-Paul’s career.

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In 2014, he was a freshman All-American. In 2015 and 2016, he’s been named to …

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