Myles Garrett Gives Reason For Doing Pre-Snap Dribble Moves

Garrett has gone viral for doing a crossover dribble prior to snaps in two games this season — so why does he do them?

Myles Garrett’s love of basketball showed up once again in Sunday’s win over the 49ers.

For the second time this season, Garrett playfully did a crossover dribble prior to a snap, timing it closely to when the ball was actually snapped at the line of scrimmage.

.@Flash_Garrett back on his crossover game. 🔥

(h/t @BenjaminSolak) pic.twitter.com/kWFtaCrMBn

— NFL (@NFL) October 18, 2023

The first time, of course, was back in Week 1 when the Cleveland Browns were dominating the Bengals. Garrett actually broke through protection on the play, too, which made his pre-snap moves look even cooler.

you’re a QB and you look across the line and see Myles Garrett working on his crossover dribble wyd pic.twitter.com/0UkU67eaqB

— Jordan Zirm (@JordanZirm) September 11, 2023

So why does he do it?

Garrett spoke about it a bit in Friday’s media availability before the Browns head to Indianapolis to play the Colts.

“Just enjoy the moment,” he said. “You may never get this again. You never know what could happen. Matchups like that, being able to play the game in general, I don’t want to take it for granted. I want to make it as memorable as possible, and stuff like that also has a point to it.

“Trying to see where he’s going to fly, where he’s going to check to, who’s going to come to me and try to get them off-balanced again. I’m going to go one way or the other. I’m going to go through them. Just try to make him beat himself before the ball.”

Maybe a little crossover action from Garrett does make an opposing lineman’s job a little harder — or at least slightly more intimidated.

For what it’s worth, when Joel Bitonio was asked about Garrett doing it following Week 1, he said it’s something he’d never expect from an opposing edge rusher.

“To put a basketball (on it) like he’s dribbling maybe just gets him into his mindset,” he said. “He’s lined up over the left guard before in practice, and it’s one of those ones where it’s like, you know you’re going to have a battle when he lines up there. But I don’t know, that’d be one that you have to ask me after because I would never expect to see that on the football field.”