Joe Burrow has a simple New Year's resolution.

Be happy.

So a win (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) in the season finale against Cleveland at Paycor, a game where Browns defensive end Myles Garrett needs one sack to set the NFL single-season sack record, would probably please him on the first Sunday of 2026.

"He's got me a lot. He's got me a lot," said Burrow after Wednesday's practice.

Don't expect Burrow to give Garrett an easy sack, like the one Michael Strahan got from Brett Favre when he set the record in 2001 with the 22.5 that Garrett seeks to break. He needs just one, but Burrow won't change his game.

"I'm certainly not going to overcompensate either way. I'm not going to go out of my way to not let him get the record, and I'm not going to go out of my way to let him get the record either," Burrow said.

"There are going to be situations that a sack is the best of the bad outcomes of that play, and maybe I take one and there's going to be other situations that I'm about to get sacked and I need to throw it away in that situation. It's such a situational game that I don't think you can go in thinking one way or the other. Every play is so different."

Burrow and Baltimore's Lamar Jackson have been victimized the most by Garrett, each being deposited a dozen times.

"He's a guy that I've kind of gotten to know over the years. I like him as a person" Burrow said, "and he takes his job very seriously, and he's a guy I have a lot of respect for."

O-Line Love

Two sacks of Burrow in Cleveland on Opening Day started Garrett's run. But this is not that offensive line. Four of the players are the same, but left guard Dylan Fairchild is making his 15th start instead of his first, and right guard Dalton Risner, who had been here all of a week back on Sept. 7, has brought a veteran's soundness and stability starting the last six games.

Burrow says it's the most comfortable he's felt in the pocket during his career, and the numbers from his last five starts since he came off injured reserve support the feeling.

The Bengals are 10th in the league in sack percentage at 5.0 in those last five games, via Pro Football Reference. In his three full seasons, the Bengals were 19th (6.86) in 2024, 17th in 2022 (6.73) and next to last in 2021 at 9.02.

"I think they're playing exponentially better than they were at the time. I know they're excited about the challenge but I know their front is tough to deal with, starting with (Garrett)," Burrow said. "They have a lot of other guys, too, that can be very challenging to handle up front. I know they're excited for it."

QB Club

Sunday is a bit of a weird one. In the opener, Burrow beat his backup on Sunday in Joe Flacco’s 191st NFL start. Now he faces Browns rookie fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders in his seventh NFL start.

He's learned from one and thinks the other one is on the right track, although he wouldn't get into specifics about what he's taken from Flacco.

"Certainly, when you get a chance to sit back and watch somebody else go have success the way he did," Burrow said, "in a style that I don't play and not a ton of people do play in the league anymore, you certainly take some things from watching that and apply it to yourself."

Sanders is the sixth different starting Browns quarterback Burrow has faced in his six seasons and 10th game against Cleveland as he looks to get to 5-5 against them.

"I really enjoyed watching (Sanders) in college. I thought he made a lot of plays. I thought he could throw it," Burrow said. "And then obviously, given who his dad is, he knows how to handle the media, knows how to handle the spotlight. He's certainly been under more of a microscope than any other fifth-round pick that's been in the history of football.

"Every clip that I see, he seems to be handling it well. Says most of the right things in the media. He is who is. He's himself. That's what you want out of a football player. Seems to be handling it the right way."

The Bengals get Sanders two weeks after they beat a seventh-round pick in Dolphins quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Slants and Screens

A year after head coach Zac Taylor replaced his defensive coordinator and offensive line coach, he doesn't sound like guy ready to make more changes on the coaching staff.

"Really excited, really excited about the direction these guys are going. A lot of the new guys, the run defense, O-line guys, really pleased with how they just fit as a staff," Taylor said before practice Monday. "The type of people they are, the type of workers they are, their football IQ, their ability to work well with others, and adapt to scheme, and have great ideas. And I think that we've got a really strong collection of coaches. I always feel this way that over the next 10 years, you're going to see unbelievable things from everybody on the staff." …

On Wednesday. Burrow summed up his role about as well as anyone has. He may not want to be the general manager, but he appreciates that the job of quarterback has some extra responsibility.

"I think my job is to No. 1, play as well as I can. No. 2, continue to improve, and No. 3, be the conduit between coaching staff, front office and the locker room," Burrow said. "Relay feelings that players have, relay sentiments in the locker room because coaches and front office, they aren't down there every day and they don't understand a lot of the things that go on in the locker room. So I think quarterback, your job is to relay some of those things." …

Taylor, 42, enjoyed the first-down dive of Flacco, 40, on Sunday late in the win over the Cards.

"That's all we needed on that play was to get the first down and keep the sticks moving," Taylor said. "As a fellow 40s-year-old man, it's impressive. I can't do that." …

Running back Chase Brown (illness) didn’t work Wednesday …

Neither did four guys who were out last Sunday:

Defensive end Joseph Ossai (ankle), returner Charlie Jones (ankle), cornerback Josh Newton (hamstring) and tight end Cam Grandy (chest) …