The Cleveland Browns have an impressive rookie class this season, and maybe the most imposing doesn't play quarterback.
Cleveland selected Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham with the No. 5 overall pick after trading back with Jacksonville.
Graham got off to a rough start at rookie mincamp by throwing up on the very first day. It made news, as it should've.
"The thing I love about Mason, right, I think everybody heard he ate a little bit too much and he threw up that first day," Browns defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire said during mandatory minicamp. "But what a lot of people are not talking about is that the kid finished, OK? He went back out there, puke and all, and finished the rep."
Graham didn't let that get him down, but instead continued to work to impress his coaches, and impress his coaches he did.
"I remember telling our guys, 'There's a kid at Michigan right now that that guy can move and he has a lot of rush moves and he has strong hands and we got to take a look at him,' and our guys were already on it," Cesaire said. "They're like, 'Yeah, we know.' And as you start watching tape, watching tape, watching tape, you just start really liking a guy more and more and more and more and just start fitting the pieces together like, oh man, if he was on this side playing with this guy, imagine what he could do."
Graham comes from a Michigan defense where all he had to do was block. That's not the case in Cleveland, as he's expected to do more, but he's adjusting.
"It’s been an adjustment for him just because the style of play, reading blocks and, like you said, protecting linebackers and things like that," Schwartz said on June 4. "You know, that’s not what we do. … I do think there’s a lot of meat on the bone as far as his production, and we can see better production from him than even we saw, and he had outstanding production in college."
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is happy with where Graham is right now, but knows the hardest work is ahead and is excited to see how he handles it.
"There has been some growing pains," Schwartz said. "He’s pretty far ahead right now. When we get pads on, that’ll be the next step. And then when you go live contact, that’ll be a next step. So it’ll be a process for him."