Garrett Ross Sickels (born September 24, 1994) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

outside linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

, and signed as an undrafted free agent with

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

the in 2017. He played for three seasons, signing with four teams.

High school career

Sickels played all four years at

Red Bank Regional High School Red Bank Regional High School (often abbreviated RBR) is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school and school district that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from the boroughs of Little Silver, Red Bank and Shrewsbu ...

, but didn't see significant playing time until his junior year playing mostly special teams his first two years. He recorded 194 tackles, 25 sacks, nine forced fumbles and eight blocked kicks in his career. Selected to play in the 2013 U.S. Army All-American game, where he roomed with future Nittany Lion teammate Brendan Mahon. Rated a four-star recruit by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

.com,

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

and Scout.com and was the Rivals.com No. 3 overall prep player in New Jersey.

College career

Sickles arrived at Penn State in 2013 but

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his true freshman season. Sickles racked up over 90 tackles, 29 of which were tackles for loss or no gain. Sickles best performance was on October 22, 2016, when he had 9 tackles including 2.5 sacks vs

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. After his junior season he was named to Phil Steele's and the Athlon Sports All-Big Ten third-team, Selected All-Big Ten second-team by the conference coaches and All-Big Ten third-team by the media panel. Named Most Valuable Defensive Player at the annual Nittany Lion Football Banquet. On January 4, 2017, Sickles declared for the

2017 NFL Draft The 2017 NFL Draft was the 82nd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. It was held in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on April 27–29, returning to Philadelphia f ...

Statistics

Professional career

Indianapolis Colts

After going undrafted in the

, Sickels signed with the

on May 3, 2017. He was waived on September 2, 2017 and was signed to the Colts' practice squad the next day. He was released on September 12, 2017.

Cleveland Browns

On September 25, 2017, Sickels was signed to the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

' practice squad. He was released on October 3, 2017.

Los Angeles Rams

On October 12, 2017, Sickels was signed to the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

' practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on December 27, 2017. On August 4, 2018, Sickels was waived/injured by the Rams and placed on injured reserve. Without Sickels, the Rams reached

Super Bowl LIII Super Bowl LIII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2018 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Confe ...

where they lost 13-3 to the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

Washington Redskins

On August 1, 2019, Sickels was signed by the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. He was waived with an injury settlement on August 11, 2019. Sickles announced his retirement from football on August 27, 2019.

References

External links

Penn State Nittany Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sickels, Garrett 1994 births Living people Players of American football from New Jersey Sportspeople from Monmouth County, New Jersey American football linebackers American football defensive ends People from Red Bank, New Jersey Red Bank Regional High School alumni Penn State Nittany Lions football players Indianapolis Colts players Cleveland Browns players Los Angeles Rams players Washington Redskins players