Browns' Myles Garrett doubles down on officiating complaints

Cleveland Browns All-Pro pass-rusher Myles Garrett made it known Friday he has no regrets about the comments he delivered regarding the officiating shortly after his team's 31-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars this past Sunday. 

"It was [time to get it off my chest]," Garrett explained while speaking with media members ahead of the weekend, as shared by the club's official website and Spencer German of FanNation's Browns Digest. "Some of it had been stoked for a while, last couple weeks. Other rushers have been also dealing with the same thing. I can only speak for myself, but once you got a whole position fed up with the way they're being treated you know somethings kind of been off." 

Specifically, Garrett had previously said that the officiating in the Jacksonville game was a "travesty," largely because he felt Jaguars blockers got away with holding and other penalties that kept him from sacking quarterback Trevor Lawrence all afternoon. The 27-year-old star declined to say on Friday if he was fined by the NFL for criticizing the referees, but indicated such a price is worth the potential for seeing flags thrown when he's fouled by opposing players. 

"It is what it is," Garrett added about the situation. "Right now, I'm not getting any calls so it can't get much worse than that. But I hope it has a positive effect. I'm not trying to offend anybody. I just want them to do the job to the best of their ability."

Garrett recorded zero sacks over Cleveland's past three games but, per ESPN stats, remains just two quarterback takedowns away from possibly sharing the league lead (15 sacks) for that category. He'll hope to be on the right side of referee decisions when his 8-5 Browns host the 5-8 Chicago Bears this Sunday. 

As of Friday evening, oddschecker listed the Browns as three-point favorites against the Bears. That outlet also had Garrett second among the betting favorites at +200 odds to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors.