The Opening Drive 9/16: The Browns Could Use a Miracle, and Mason Graham Finding His Way
A gift would be welcome, and the young defensive tackle is starting to flash early.
Let’s do story time. To be clear, this is not a 1:1 scenario, but there are plenty of crossovers. Not too long ago, the San Francisco 49ers were in the midst of their competitive window with a strong roster and an elite head coach calling plays. They went to the 2019 Super Bowl and lost a close game. Everything was in front of them. The problem was they couldn’t solve quarterback.
Their starter kept getting hurt, and when he did play, he left a lot to be desired. So, following a 6-10 season in 2020, the decision was made to push all the chips in and pursue their quarterback of the future. They settled on Trey Lance, the North Dakota State product, with the third overall selection. To get Lance, they moved their 12th overall pick and gave up two future first-rounders and a third-rounder as well. It was a massive cost. Sounds familiar, right?
The problem was Lance wasn’t ready to take the job right away and spent most of his rookie year behind Garoppolo. Then, when he was finally set to earn the role in 2022, he fractured his ankle early in the season. The team still found success with Garoppolo holding the job, but his broken foot late in the year left them in the same spot they’d been in before. In stepped Brock Purdy.
The final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft was thrown into the starting role that December and never looked back. Yes—the absolute last selection of the draft. Had the 49ers not stumbled into the luckiest break of all time, they would have continued wasting a premier roster while searching for solutions they no longer had the draft capital to acquire. Instead, they landed on a miracle.
“Thank God for Mr. Irrelevant,” 49ers general manager John Lynch said. “He helped us.”
In a sense, the Browns need the same result. They’ve been unable to dig out of the hole created by the Deshaun Watson trade. While they haven’t made another major swing at quarterback since moving on from Baker Mayfield and trading for Watson, they have put a couple of Purdy-like options in place.
On Sunday, Dillon Gabriel flashed again with his first NFL touchdown pass to Dillon Sampson—a well-thrown ball into the back corner of the end zone that gave you a glimmer of hope. The kind the Browns have insisted they saw in him from the moment they selected him.
“I think our third-string quarterback is our best quarterback,” Shanahan told 49ers owner Jed York after a training camp practice during Purdy’s rookie year. That line sounds familiar to what the Browns have going on right now. Purdy got his shot in December and seized it immediately.
It may be some time before Gabriel gets his chance to do the same—or it may not. The immediate future of this offense is unclear. What we do know is the Browns need a similar miracle. Who’s to say Gabriel can’t replicate Purdy’s unexpected rise? Plenty are eager to find out—and I’m one of them.
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Whenever young defensive tackles come into the NFL, I am keenly aware of how tough the challenge is. They go from facing mostly mediocre college offensive linemen to the best “dump-truck built” interior offensive linemen in the world. NFL guards are a wild set of specimens—too quick for what their size suggests and packing a serious power punch. And when these young defensive tackles arrive in the league, they have to figure out not only how to beat those guards but also how to handle the center or nearby tackle working a double team in both phases.
I say all of that to emphasize just how hard this position is for young talent. There’s a steep learning curve, and attention to detail is paramount. Where players could win with sheer speed or power alone in college, in the NFL you have to become a technician. There will be moments here and there to win with traits, but to thrive you must show the ability to win inside the little details.
On Sunday, Graham started to show some traits against the run. Through the preseason and Week 1, he tried to lean on power alone to get results. There have been some “welcome to the NFL, rook” moments for him, but what every young defensive tackle needs are flashes of how they’ll find consistent success down the line. Graham is starting to show you that.
Some speed off the ball with gap-shooting, shock-and-shed to control two gaps, and then some strength on the final rep to handle that turn block but disengage to make the play.
He certainly looks more comfortable against the run than rushing the passer so far this year, but the process is coming along as a pass rusher as well. His key pressure that led to a sack in Week 1 flashed how he is understanding the hand battle and setting up moves to create space. He gets it done via the swipe move here that knocks the guards hands off him and allows an inside win.
The Browns are trusting him with a high volume of snaps as his 86 are the most among any Browns defensive lineman and leads all interior defensive line rookies currently. He is filling his role well snap-to-snap. These early flashes are exactly what you want at this stage from your 22 year old defensive tackle. The future is bright for Graham.
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Browns Film Breakdown will return today with the full All-22 defensive breakdown.
