AS A FRESHMAN at Servite High School in Anaheim, California, Mason Graham lived too far away to go home between the end of class and the start of evening basketball practice. So Servite football coach Troy Thomas convinced Graham to utilize that free time by joining the wrestling team, which practiced in the afternoons.
That decision put Graham on a path to make history next month in a different sport, when he’s likely to become the first Michigan defensive tackle ever to go in the top 10 of the NFL draft.
Graham might not have the traditional physical profile of an elite defensive tackle. At the NFL combine, his arm length measured just 32 inches — placing him in the 12th percentile among defensive tackle prospects this century.
NFL teams don’t seem worried about the length of his arms, though. They’re focused on what he does with them.
“Short arms are worth noting, but realistically only concerning if it shows up on tape,” an AFC scout told ESPN. “If a player with short arms is constantly allowing their chest to be attacked or is frequently stuck on blocks, then short arms are a huge concern. That’s not the case here. Graham’s a highly disruptive player.”
That goes back to the Servite wrestling room, where Graham developed into a ferocious, two-time conference champion heavyweight grappler, honing the skills that would define him in the trenches: leverage, technique, toughness, focus and pure will.
“You see that now in his game,” Thomas said. “The way he moves and tackles — you can see all of that when he’s playing.”
Despite his short arms, Graham emerged as the most physically dominant defensive tackle in college football last season, earning unanimous All-American honors. According to ESPN Research, Michigan surrendered 4.6 yards per play when Graham was on the field last year and 5.4 when he was off the field. The numbers were even more pronounced in the run game, where the Wolverines allowed 2.6 yards per rush with Graham and 3.9 without.
In his final college game, Graham wrecked the high-powered offense of the eventual national champions. While plugging the middle, Graham led the charge in shutting down Ohio State’s vaunted rushing attack. He also logged a career-high seven tackles as Michigan, a three-touchdown underdog, stunned the Buckeyes 13-10 for its fourth straight win in the rivalry.
“He just physically [controlled] that entire offensive line,” said Wolverines defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who coached almost two decades in the NFL before joining the Wolverines last year. “You can definitely tell his wrestling background with the way he plays because of his balance. He knows how to use his hands better than a lot of players in the league right now.”
Graham is now primed to become a defensive cornerstone for whichever NFL team drafts him. Other NFL defensive tackles with similar arm measurements have still thrived. Former Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins was an eight-time Pro Bowler despite having 32-inch arms. Defensive tackle Ed Oliver (31.75-inch arms), the No. 9 pick in 2019, has been a key starter for the Buffalo Bills.
To any lingering doubters, Graham has one response: Watch the tape.
“I feel like just rolling out the Ohio State film,” Graham said at the combine. “That’s all you need to see, really.”
WHEN GRAHAM WASN’T wrestling during football offseasons, he worked up to four times a week with Servite defensive line coach Kelly Talavou, a former Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman. At a local park with a few teammates, they drilled hand placement, pad level, block recognition and pass-rushing technique, sometimes for two hours at a time.
Graham went above and beyond during the season. He studied so much film that he could often predict what play was coming just from an offensive lineman’s stance or lean.
“Arm length doesn’t matter with him because he works so hard and he’s so smart,” Talavou said. “He’s such an instinctual player … he sees the play coming before it happens.”
That happened during Michigan’s national championship run two years ago, when he delivered one of the biggest defensive plays in program history.
In the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl against Alabama, on second-and-goal in overtime, Graham lined up opposite Crimson Tide left guard Tyler Booker — also a projected first-round pick. With a sudden, swift move, Graham knifed into the backfield just as running back Jase McClellan took the handoff and slammed him into the turf for a 5-yard loss.
Two plays later, Michigan stopped Alabama on fourth down and advanced to the CFP title game. Alabama coach Nick Saban said Graham “gave us fits” and called him “dominant.”
Thomas’ son, Houston, who wrestled and played football with Graham at Servite, immediately saw the wrestling connection with the stop in overtime.
“You see how he gets off blocks and flies in there to make tackles,” he said. “Those positions from wrestling definitely helped form him into the [player] that he is.”
DESPITE HIS CLEAR potential, Graham was largely overlooked in high school. COVID-19 wiped out much of his junior season, limiting game film and exposure. He remained a three-star recruit, even though he was already budding into a star.
Two of his Servite teammates — quarterback Noah Fifita and wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan — both committed to Arizona. Fifita’s father, Les, tried to get the Wildcats to take a chance on Graham as well.
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“Everybody that would listen, we were telling them,” said Les Fifita. “He was just unblockable.”
Boise State offered, and Graham initially committed. But then-Michigan general manager Courtney Morgan and then-defensive line coach Shaun Nua kept tabs. Just a couple of games into his senior year, they convinced him to flip.
Graham enrolled early at Michigan and skipped his final semester of high school. Many at Servite believed that had he stayed, he could’ve been one of the top heavyweight wrestlers in the state.
At the time, Graham wasn’t sure how wrestling would help his football career. Now? It taught him “how to beat the other person” one-on-one, he said.
Arguably nobody in this draft does that better — regardless of arm length.
“I feel like I affect every snap, run or pass,” Graham said. “I feel like I’m a dominant player, one of the most dominant players in this class.”
ESPN NFL reporter Mike Reiss contributed to this story
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