49ers’ Trent Williams and Browns’ Myles Garrett are set for a titanic clash

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Even in his younger years, before his current stretch of dominance for the San Francisco 49ers, Trent Williams was hooked on game tape. The left tackle has spent countless late nights over his career scouring the film of opposing pass rushers, appreciating their strengths and brainstorming ways to exploit their nuanced weaknesses.

Team brass in Washington saw Williams’ diligence, so before his eighth season there, they gave him an extracurricular assignment. They had Williams write scouting reports on the top eight edge rushers in the 2017 NFL Draft. His first work covered then-Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett.

If Williams becomes an NFL executive after his illustrious playing career is over, it’ll be possible to trace his scouting career back to 2017 viewings of Garrett, the Cleveland Browns superstar the 49ers will face Sunday.

This marks the first matchup between Williams and Garrett, the No. 1 pick from that 2017 draft.

“I can go back and look at my report,” Williams said in the 49ers’ locker room on Thursday. “He’s exactly what I thought he was going to be. But that story dates me. It shows how old I am.”

Williams’ play is not doing that. He turned 35 in July but is again — for the fourth straight season — grading out as the NFL’s top offensive tackle, according to Pro Football Focus.

Garrett, meanwhile, has graded as PFF’s top pass rusher, making Sunday’s game a true clash of titans. Garrett lines up against left tackle about 85 percent of the time, and Williams expects that to be the case when the 49ers take on the Browns.

“Because Za’Darius Smith is a hell of a rusher as well,” Williams said, referring to the defensive end that the Browns traded for this offseason to bookend Garrett. “It ain’t like you get too much of a break if he’s not on your side. So I’m expecting (Garrett) to be on the blind side about 85 percent of the time. I’m expecting to have to buckle up, man. This is going to be a hell of a ride.

“It takes me back to the DeMarcus Ware and Dwight Freeney days, to when I’m having to block them and I’m a young pup and they’re in their prime, their heyday. Because those were guys where athleticism won’t win, sometimes great technique won’t even win — and that keeps you up at night. Knowing you can be perfect technically and still lose. There’s a lot of rushers in the league that you don’t worry about that with. If you’re good, then most likely the protection will be good. But with Garrett, you can be outstanding and he can still embarrass you.”

GO DEEPER

After dropping Cowboys, the 49ers can catch the Browns as NFL’s No. 1 defense

Ware and Freeney retired after the 2016 and 2017 seasons, respectively. Both will likely end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, although only Ware has been inducted so far. Williams will almost certainly join them one day and Garrett — with 80 sacks over his seven-plus years in the league — is making of a hell of a case, too.

The 49ers’ No. 2-ranked offense whipped the Dallas Cowboys’ defense, which was ranked No. 1 at the time, in a 42-10 laugher last week. As a result, Dallas tumbled to the No. 8 DVOA ranking. Now, the 49ers take aim at Cleveland’s defense, which has taken the Cowboys’ place in the top spot.

But the Browns might present a tougher challenge to the 49ers. For one, Cleveland is coming off a bye week, so they’ll be rested and have had extra time to prepare for the prolific 49ers’ attack. The Browns are also stiffer against the run than the Cowboys, thanks in large part to the fact that Garrett is more rigid in scrums than Dallas’ springy edge rusher Micah Parsons.

“He doesn’t have a weakness,” Williams said of Garrett. “You can only speak of two or three players in the league across positions that don’t have a weakness. He’s definitely one of them. So running at him, running away from him, sliding him, chipping him. None of it seems to faze him at all.”

Cleveland loaded its defensive lineup with savvy veterans this offseason, adding defensive tackles Dalvin Tomlinson and Shelby Harris on top of Smith. That’s helped open the door for 5 1/2 sacks from Garrett through just four games. A strong back end anchored by cornerback Denzel Ward and safety Grant Delpit has also helped spearhead the Browns’ excellent start on defense.

But it all starts with Garrett, and double-teaming him has not shown to be a great option for opposing offenses.

“Getting a player like (Smith) opposite of him who can constantly win his one-on-ones, I think that’s a huge deal for them,” Williams said. “Because not a lot of people are going to want to leave (Garrett) one-on-one, so (Smith) gets the majority of the one-on-one reps, and he can win ’em at a high clip. So he is a huge acquisition for them. Part of the reason why they’re No. 1.”

Smith is good enough that the 49ers might decide to give right tackle Colton McKivitz help against him, a maneuver that’ll likely leave Williams alone against Garrett on the left side for at least some of Sunday’s snaps. And that promises to be one of the best matchups of this NFL season.

It reminds Williams of the past — those epic battles against Ware and Freeney and that scouting report he wrote on Garrett coming out of college.

“He’s an even bigger monster now,” Williams said. “He was amazing in college, but what he is now is almost like a juggernaut. He’s a tough out for anybody. So we definitely have our work cut out. He’s a freak of nature.”

And it does indeed cause Williams to stay awake, obsessing over the challenge ahead.

“I’ll be up in my bed thinking about it all night,” Williams said. “I was up last night thinking about it. You do lose sleep.”

• The Browns could be without starting quarterback Deshaun Watson against the 49ers. Watson is dealing with a shoulder injury and missed last week’s 28-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Dorian Thompson-Robinson started that game and the rookie threw three interceptions. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski named veteran P.J. Walker the team’s new No. 2 quarterback this week, lining him up to start in Watson’s place against the 49ers.

Cleveland’s offense is ranked No. 26 by DVOA. The Browns are also without star running back Nick Chubb, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2.

GO DEEPER

Browns stuck in wait-and-see mode as Deshaun Watson rehabs shoulder injury

• The 49ers, on the other hand, enter this game with exceptional health. Left guard Aaron Banks has been back at practice this week after suffering a shoulder injury against Dallas. Running back Elijah Mitchell, who hurt his knee at practice two weeks ago, returned to the field for Thursday’s session. The only active player to miss practice was linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who’s dealing with an ankle issue. But Greenlaw has missed some practice in each of the past two weeks and still played in Sunday’s game, so there seems to be a good chance that the pattern repeats itself this week.

49ers vs. Browns predictions

WinnerScoreRecord

Matt Barrows

27-16

5-0

David Lombardi

30-13

5-0

Matt Barrows: You might consider the Browns the 49ers’ Midwestern twin. They run an attacking, Wide 9 defense that features one of the best edge players in the game, Garrett. Like the 49ers, the Browns specialize in penetrating the line of scrimmage and closing off the edges for the opponents’ running game. Those are the defenses. The offenses? They’re not even the same species. The 49ers’ massive edge in talent — plus the fact that they’ve been practicing against a Wide 9 defense for years — ought to supply a comfortable win.

David Lombardi: Some markings of the dreaded trap game are here, but the 49ers are really damn good. And I incorrectly predicted a close win last week. A blowout followed. Until we have data that suggests otherwise, it’s smart to predict this team to win in a rout. They’ve earned that respect.

(Top photos of Trent Williams: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images; Myles Garrett: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

“The Football 100,” the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, goes on sale this fall. Preorder it here.