• Mason Graham comes in at No. 1 on PFF's early 2025 Big Board: He is the second-highest-graded interior defensive lineman returning to the FBS this season, having posted a 90.0 mark in 2023.
• Versatility is Graham's best asset: He participated in five sports as a freshman in high school, knowing that they would serve him well on the football field.
• Dominate fantasy football season with promo code PFF25: Unlock all of PFF's fantasy content and tools, including full access to the fantasy football mock draft simulator, for 25% off using promo code PFF25.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
It was Game 14 of a long, grueling season filled with adversity and sky-high expectations. As if that wasn’t enough, it was overtime. That’s where Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham found himself about to play his 46th snap in a 27-20 contest against Alabama.
The stakes could’ve hardly been higher — the Rose Bowl, the College Football Playoff and the team that has dominated the college football landscape for the past decade standing in the Wolverines' way of playing for a national championship. It took Michigan just two plays to score in overtime, but Alabama was within the 10-yard line in two plays of their own, looking to do the same.
Then, on second-and-9, Graham, as he had done so many times in the year to that point, broke through for a major tackle for loss.
“For how that game was going, they were kind of driving the ball on us,” Graham said in an exclusive interview with PFF. “They had made some chunk plays, I felt like I was able to set them back. We were able to regroup, and then you saw what happened. Everyone saw what happened. I always think about that play.”
I don’t think we talk about this play enough.
Mason Graham was shot out of a cannon.
A special player with a bright future. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/D4ieSvO8mA
— Don Thomas (@REALDonThomas) July 2, 2024
The Wolverines ended up taking down the Crimson Tide before dismantling Washington in the national championship game, a storybook ending to an undefeated season.
Now, Michigan is preparing for a repeat without a host of players who helped make that 2023-24 undefeated title run possible. Their 13 players drafted last April were the most of any program in the country, and the fourth-most all-time for a single school in a single draft. But, as just a true junior entering the 2024 campaign, Graham remains.
He is the second-highest-graded interior defensive lineman returning to the FBS this season, having posted a 90.0 mark in 2023. He was a first-team All-Conference player and a second-team All-American. His 16.4% pass-rush win rate ranked third, behind only Ohio State's Michael Hall Jr. and Texas' Byron Murphy II, both of whom were top-55 picks in April. Graham finished as a top-10 interior defender in run-defense grade (87.8) and pass-rush grade (84.8).
That’s a lot of words to simply say that Graham is a beast. And he always has been. Back at Servite High School in Anaheim, California, Graham’s coach, Troy Thomas, recognized how special he could be. That’s why he was given the number 55 — the number he still wears today.
“My high school coach likes to give people numbers that remind him of his past players,” Graham said. “Troy Niklas went to my high school. He played in the league for a little bit, played tight end — he also played O-line (in high school). [My coach] thought that fit me well, wearing his No. 55. He was a legend at the high school I went to. So I carried that through, and now at Michigan it’s cool because we had Brandon Graham — same number, same last name. It’s pretty cool.”
Niklas played along the offensive and defensive lines at Servite and featured at linebacker and tight end for Notre Dame before being drafted in the second round by the Arizona Cardinals in 2014. Graham followed in that versatility, playing running back and linebacker in Pee Wee and middle school, then playing both ways on the offensive and defensive lines in high school. But Graham knew his heart was with the defensive side of the ball. Growing up, he modeled his game after Ray Lewis, and he kept that big-play mentality even after switching from linebacker to the trenches.
Making those big plays starts with his hand usage and explosiveness. Graham pairs both to yield a high success rate. PFF tracks how often pass-rushing defenders beat a blocker in a way that would have resulted in pressure but was denied by outside factors, usually the ball being thrown quickly. Graham’s 20 “beaten by defender” reps were the third most in college football for an interior player in 2023.
Graham credits his high school defensive line coach, Kelly Talavou, who played in the NFL for four seasons, mostly with the Baltimore Ravens, as the catalyst for his advanced hand work. Almost every day after practice in high school, the defensive line would get extra work in with Talavou. Nowadays, Graham watches players like Quinnen Williams and Jalen Carter to see how they dominate with a combination of hand strength and quickness to be unblockable.
“I don’t have a ‘calling card’ for a move, I would say,” Graham said. “I just like being able to switch it up. I’ll stutter or shake or even go through them. I just like having enough moves to always be able to switch it up and stay effective.”
Technique is part of it, but the main reason Graham is at the top of PFF’s 2025 Big Board is his natural gifts. He participated in five sports as a freshman in high school: basketball, football, rugby, track and field and wrestling. While he wasn’t big into wrestling at first, he knew how much it would help him in football and, eventually, became pretty good at it. As far as track and field, his main gig was throwing. But for fun, he’d line up with the small guys and run the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
“I like to do stuff that’s not fitting to me,” Graham said. “I know I’m a lineman and I’m not supposed to be doing that stuff. Even now when guys are throwing the ball in practice, I’ll go out and run routes.”
It has all led to a storied career at Michigan, where the Wolverines know they will once again be a difficult team to beat in 2024-25. Despite all the turnover, some other studs remain on defense, one of which is Graham’s running mate on the interior defensive line, Kenneth Grant. Grant himself is projected to be an early draft pick next April. At 6-foot-3 and 340 pounds, Grant pairs with Graham to make for quite the dynamic duo.
Former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh called them “gifts from the football gods.” Some would say they go together perfectly.
“Someone said this to me the other day: ‘It's like peanut butter and jelly,'” Graham said with a laugh. “We just go together. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. When we’re both on the inside, they can’t focus all their attention on one of us.”
Unique production often comes from unique players. That’s what Mason Graham is; not just physically, but mentally. He likes trying new things — it’s why he chose Michigan over teams closer to home, such as Oregon and USC. He’ll line up and sprint when big men don’t often do that. He chose to wrestle even when he wasn’t interested in the beginning. He never wants his foe to know his next pass-rush move. He puts in the extra work. He watches the best in the game at his position. He is self-motivated. The bar he sets is the one he cares most about.
That is his goal — and his team’s goal — for how to follow up on what was a stellar 2023 season.
“Prove ourselves right,” Graham said. “Not necessarily proving everyone else wrong, just proving ourselves right.”
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