{"id":139349,"date":"2025-06-18T10:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T10:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/139349\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T10:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T10:17:12","slug":"browns-coach-reveals-growing-pains-for-first-round-draft-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/139349\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns Coach Reveals ‘Growing Pains’ for First-Round Draft Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Browns Coach Reveals ‘Growing Pains’ for First-Round Draft Pick<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Browns selected Michigan Wolverines defensive tackle Mason Graham with the No. 5 overall pick this year after trading down from No. 2 with Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

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In doing so, Cleveland passed on the opportunity to add wideout\/cornerback Travis Hunter to the roster. That’s a huge gamble, and the pro careers of both Graham and Hunter will forever be compared by Browns fans.<\/p>\n

As a top-five pick, Graham is expected to contribute immediately in the league, but is that realistic?<\/p>\n

Cleveland defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz discussed Graham’s early work in the offseason and noted some potential growing pains.<\/p>\n

“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,” Schwartz<\/a> said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“It’s been an adjustment for him. We’re a penetrating team that places a big emphasis on defensive linemen being able to make plays. So there have been some growing pains. He’s pretty far ahead right now.”<\/p>\n

Graham is expected to start in the middle of the defensive line that also includes long-time standout Myles Garrett, and Garrett noted Graham’s willingness to learn.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s hungry,” Garrett said. “He’s been pretty quiet, but I see him watching a lot. I see him learning, and he’s just really inquisitive, staying near to make sure that he hears every detail and just picking up on things.”<\/p>\n

When the Browns drafted Graham, general manager Andrew Berry said he fits in with the Browns perfectly.<\/p>\n

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“He is a DNA match for our defense, a disruptive interior penetrator … we thought he was one of the more dominant trench prospects in this year’s class,” Berry said.<\/p>\n

If that’s the case, Graham should be a serious contributor early in the season.<\/p>\n

Related: Insider Expects Nick Chubb to Return to Browns for One Reason<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Browns Rookie Fights Through ‘Puke and All’ to Finish Mandatory Minicamp Strong<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 17, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Browns Coach Reveals ‘Growing Pains’ for First-Round Draft Pick originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Cleveland Browns selected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,7834,7,212,22881,579,1304,6,15,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-139349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-cleveland-browns","9":"tag-defensive-linemen","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jim-schwartz","13":"tag-mason-graham","14":"tag-myles-garrett","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nfl-draft","17":"tag-travis-hunter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114703856901166056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}