Dylan Cook will be in an unenviable position Sunday when he makes his anticipated third NFL start for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Lining up across from Cook at left tackle will be Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett, who is having an historic season as a pass rusher.
Garrett will enter the game with 22 sacks, one-half behind the single-season record, one that is co-held by Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt.
Coach Mike Tomlin would like to provide Cook as much help as possible against Garrett, but he admits there is only so much he can do. The Steelers, after all, could start former seventh-round draft pick Spencer Anderson at left guard instead of an injured Isaac Seumalo. And despite giving Cook assistance Sunday in the Steelers’ 29-24 victory at Detroit, Cook still was charged with allowing one sack, two pressures and four hurries.
And, to boot, it’s not like extra help has benefited other NFL left tackles when facing Garrett. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be pressuring quarterbacks at such an accelerated rate.
“Certainly, (Cook) is going to get help,” Tomlin said. “Everybody has gotten help, and it hasn’t slowed down the train. He still has 22 sacks. I imagine most of those are not one-on-one plays. We are going to do our due diligence, but we’re not going to act like or pretend we’re reinventing the wheel here.
“We better put schematics around him, (Cook) better play well, and we better stay out of one-dimensional passing circumstances. And you still might not stop the bomb from going off.”
Considering the venue, Tomlin doesn’t see any way to avoid detonation. The Steelers couldn’t defuse Garrett in their previous two trips to Huntington Bank Stadium. In 2023, Garrett had two sacks. He did even better last year, collecting three.
Not coincidentally, the Browns won each matchup and have beaten the Steelers in four of their past five visits to Cleveland.
“We understand the gravity of what we’re going into,” Tomlin said. “He’s at the doorstep of history. We have respect for that.”
The Steelers have a better track record against Garrett at Acrisure Stadium. When the two teams played there in October, Garrett didn’t have a sack or even a solo tackle. Broderick Jones started at left tackle that game. Cook is the fourth option at left tackle this season.
“Situations change,” offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said. “We did a good job of staying ahead and on track.”
Cook was tested often against Detroit’s star defensive lineman Aiden Hutchinson last week, and he was charged with giving up one of Hutchinson’s two sacks in that game.
“We slid to Hutchinson, and me and Spencer were out there kind of fighting for our lives,” Cook said. “It comes with the territory.”
Garrett, who turns 30 on Monday, has never led the NFL in sacks during his nine seasons with the Browns. He had 14 in 2023 when he controversially edged Watt for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Watt had a league-leading 19 that year but finished second in the balloting.
Tomlin doesn’t expect the race to be close this year, calling Garrett the “slam-dunk” defensive player of the year. Ranking No. 2 in sacks this year is Brian Burns of the New York Giants with 15.
It wasn’t that way when the Steelers met the Browns on Oct. 12 at Acrisure Stadium. Garrett, who totaled four sacks through the first three weeks, was shut out for the third game in a row, as the Steelers secured a 23-9 victory.
Garrett has amassed 18 sacks in the ensuing nine games, collecting 13 in a five-game span. That included five against New England, four against Baltimore and three against Las Vegas.
Now, he’s one sack away from making history.
“I don’t think we want him to get the sacks record,” Cook said. “We talked about good chips and that I have to stand up when I need to and take the air out of it and not let him get going.”