Myles Garrett positive for Covid-19

    The Cleveland Browns took a hit to their playoff hopes when Myles Garrett tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss this Sunday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles and also is highly likely to miss the following game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Jacksonville.

The 24-year-old Garrett is in the midst of the best season of his career after being chosen by Cleveland with the first selection in the 2017 draft and is currently second in the league in sacks with nine and a half behind only the ten sacks collected by Yannick Ngakoue, who has split his season between Minnesota and Baltimore.

Garrett has upped his game not only in the pass-rushing aspect but has improved his play against the run as well as shown by his stuffing of Houston's DeShaun Watson last Sunday on a fourth-down play inside the Browns five-yard line.

Garrett's absence was glaring in the team's loss to the Raiders when he missed some of the game due to injury and with Oliver Vernon disappointing at the opposite defensive end position, the Browns have to be concerned about their ability to rush the passer without Garrett in the lineup.

Despite the disparity in the teams' records (Cleveland is 6-3 with Philadelphia at 3-5-1, good enough for first place in the putrid NFC East), the Browns are only a tepid favorite over the visiting Eagles and I'm not sure that the Eagles might not be even money now for Sunday's game.

The Browns have beaten only one team with a winning record (Indianapolis) and the Eagles are capable of winning this game.

Cleveland needs to bag as many of these games against the weaker opponents as they can and even though four of the final seven games are against teams with losing records, only this one against the Eagles will be at home by Lake Erie with visits to Jacksonville and back to back trips to Giants Stadium to face the Giants and Jets on the road.

The loss of Myles Garrett will be a big one to the Browns and should the Eagles win in Cleveland and the playoffs are missed by a game, the loss of Garrett to the lineup might be looked back on as a significant reason in the Browns staying home for yet another postseason...