Name: Mason Graham
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 318 lbs.
High school: Anaheim (CA) Servite
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #55
Last year: I ranked Graham #63 and said he would be a backup defensive tackle (LINK). He made 27 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and 1 pass breakup.
TTB Rating: 84
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said last year that one of Michigan's freshman defensive tackles was "a gift from the football gods" and that guy turned out to be Kenneth Grant . . . or Mason Graham. There was debate about which one he meant. It doesn't really matter, though, because Graham turned out to be excellent for a freshman, and Grant should be pretty darn good by the time all is said and done, too. Graham had 1 sack each against Iowa and Nebraska, and even though he didn't record any tackles for loss that weren't sacks, he was consistently eating up double teams or otherwise creating problems for opposing offensive lines. His technical expertise and motor were impressive, especially for a freshman.
Now Graham is a sophomore and, for better or worse, he's 26 pounds heavier than he was listed last year. Hopefully that doesn't affect his quickness or persistence, and just judging by what we've seen from him over the past couple years (in high school and as a freshman), odds are that he will continue to wreak havoc. Graham is likely to start at nose tackle next to Kris Jenkins, Jr., which is a very formidable starting duo, with Rayshaun Benny and Grant backing them up. It's likely to be another very good season for Graham.
Prediction: Starting nose tackle; 45 tackles, 4 sacks
That's a lot of extra weight, but we have depth to get him some rest during the Sep-Oct games, and then reach his ideal conditioning when it matters most
ReplyDeleteOne note on his conditioning - in high school he played both ways and the observations about him were that he was fresh at the end of games. I think he is one of their better conditioned lineman so I am not too concerned about the weight gain. Graham is a beast. Very hard for a true frosh to be a top 10 player on a top ranked team but that's exactly what we have here and it's justified.
ReplyDeleteAgree. The added weight doesn't seem necessary but it's not concerning either. He's a sophomore playing NT and conditioning not only hasn't been a problem but a strength.
DeleteGrant and Graham are both gifts from the football Gods.
ReplyDeleteGraham delivered of the more impressive seasons from a freshman DT I can remember since Mike Martin. You can't really evaluate DTs based on counting stats IMO. It was clear he was an impact player. The only question now is how much improvement he has in him.
Michigan is losing a 1st round pick at DT and everyone seems unphased. The interior DL is in as good shape as it's been since 2016. The Jenkins/Graham/Grant/Benny rotation is as good as we could reasonably hope for and then Cam Goode as an added depth rotation piece.
DT and OL are the strengths of the team and the biggest reasons to buy into national title hopes in 2023. It's great to be!
A Michigan Wolverine! Agree that DT is as strong as you could ask. And we have solid to good options options at DE. It's really just a question of whether we can get one of the DEs to be a difference maker (and get solid to good production from CB2 and CB3). If those answers are yes and the team remains relatively healthy, then this will be an excellent to elite defense. Really looking forward to this year.
DeleteDitto here Kurt. That's why I put those DEs and DBs so high in my version of Thunder's countdown. The DEs having breakout season (whether it's 0, 1, 2, or 3 of them) can make a massive difference in our ability to be elite.
DeleteWith the secondary I think health is probably the bigger issue. We already know that 4/5ths of the starting secondary is excellent and there's a pretty decent chance that guys 5-7th can be managed, even if they aren't great. But if we lose 2 of those (Johnson, Moore, Paige, Sainristil) at the same time for injuries, now suddenly the hope that we can get 1 or 2 solid fringe rotation players out of the many roster options becomes needing to get 3 or 4 guys who can cover OSU WRs. In other words high probability to low probability.
This will remain a worry through November because no one on our schedule is really going to have the horses to really tell us if McBurrows, Hill, Berry, Sabb, Walker, etc are going to be guys we can trust against OSU's WRs until they are (maybe) forced to do it.
But that's looking for things to worry about. If backup secondary guys are your biggest worry you are very very lucky. Everybody is worried about something - even Georgia. (Though apparently losing their starting RB for the season doesn't merit much concern for them.)