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Browns rookie pass rusher Myles Garrett won't get to make good on his promise to "chop down" Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, at least in Sunday's regular-season opener, because the first-overall pick suffered a high-ankle sprain in practice Wednesday that will sideline him for several weeks.

On draft night, after the Browns took Garrett with the No. 1 pick, the former Texas A&M standout said of Roethlisberger that he's "coming for him first, to chop him down."

This week, before the injury, Garrett remained steadfast in his initial assessment.

"I stand by it,'' he said, via Cleveland.com. "You shouldn't be scared to take anybody down. It's the whole defense against their offense. I'm not going to be alone in this.''

Roethlisberger, for his part, seemed unconcerned.

"I've been playing this game for 14 years now," the Steelers quarterback told reporters on Wednesday. "He's not the first or the last one to talk about trying to get me. I'm just blessed to have a group in front of me to help protect that. I know they're always up for the challenge. They always want to protect me, open up things in the run game. They take pride in being the best in the business and that's what I think they are."

This isn't even the first time a Browns defender has called out Roethlisberger.

In November 2004, days before the 3-5 Browns hosted the 7-1 Steelers, defensive tackle Gerard Warren, Cleveland's 2001 first-round pick, explained his plan for slowing Roethlisberger, then a rookie.

"Yeah, we're going across his head, regardless of cost," Warren said at the time. "That's what we get paychecks for: We pay the cost. One rule they used to tell me -- kill the head and the body's dead. ... That's my personal way of rattling him," Warren said. "This game is all about being malicious and violent."

The Steelers won 24-10 and would finish the regular season with a 15-1 record. The Browns would win just once more. And Warren, who was the third player taken in the 2001 draft, after Michael Vick and Leonard Davis (and before LaDainian Tomlinson), lasted four years in Cleveland. He spent time with the Broncos, Raiders and Patriots before calling it a career in 2011.

In related news: Big Ben is 21-2 in his career against the Browns.

Meanwhile, Browns fans, who were right to feel the organization was finally in the process of turning things around, are understandably apoplectic by the Garrett news.

In case you're wondering, all seven CBSSports.com experts are picking the Steelers to beat the Browns.