Michael Hall Jr. accidentally broke Zak Zinter's left leg in the OSU-Michigan game in November. Now they are teammates after the Browns made their first two picks in the 2024 draft.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Takeaways from NFL draft Rounds 2 and 3 …
1. The Browns created a bizarre, unlikely Big Ten reunion when they concentrated their first two picks of the draft in the trenches. They selected Cleveland native and Ohio State defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. with the 54th overall pick in the second round and Michigan right guard Zak Zinter with the 85th overall pick in the third round. Remember the OSU-Michigan game in November? Zinter, the leader of Michigan’s stout offensive line and a team captain, suffered a broken tibia and fibula when an Ohio State player accidentally fell on Zinter’s left leg. Yup, the player was Hall. Now they are Browns teammates. “Kind of a full-circle moment,” Zinter said on a conference call.
2. Zinter was carted off the field and inspired his teammates not only to defeat the Buckeyes for the third game in a row in their historic rivalry but also to propel them to their first outright national championship since 1948. “He is a great dude, and it’s football stuff that happens when we’re playing in the trenches,” Zinter said of Hall. “But I’m fired up and I think everything happens for a reason. Now we’re going to be teammates, so I’m fired up to get there and get to work with him at practice.” Browns GM Andrew Berry described Zinter as “the heartbeat of their culture.”
3. Zinter, 6-6 and 309 pounds, fell to the third round because he was unable to work out for teams. He was fortunate the injury was not to a knee. “It was a clean break and, you know. The bone’s healing great,” Zinter said. “We felt really good about the medical,” Berry said. “He’ll be ready to go this spring and there’s really no concern about the leg.” So Zinter won’t be “red-shirted” as a rookie. But this was a pick for the future. He’s not going to dislodge All-Pro starters Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller at the guard positions. But Bitonio is 32 and ended the season with a back injury. “We’re not naive to the fact that we have guys that are either in their prime or the later stages of their prime,” Berry said. Further, Teller, 29, has a quantum leap in salary next year (to $12.8 million) and in cap number (to $21.9 million).
4. The pick of Hall came after the Browns considered similarly-rated players at other positions and several offers to trade down. Assistant GM Glenn Cook said the phones in the Browns’ draft room started ringing 20 minutes before the pick and didn’t stop. He said the team had at least one offer that was considered acceptable in pre-draft projections. “Ultimately, it just came down to the player,” Cook said. “Sometimes you just have to sit and collect talent for your team. That is how we thought through it.”
5. Hall, 6-2 ¾ and 290 pounds, is the prototypical, penetrating defensive tackle in coordinator Jim Schwartz’s scheme. “He’s really tailor-made for our attack front,” Berry said. “He’s explosive, he’s quite quick. He can rush the passer. He’s long, and he plays, really, with a very high motor. He’s really the quintessential three-technique in our defense. And for us, pass rushers will always come at a premium, especially those that can affect the pocket from inside and we think that’s something that Mike will be able to do along our front.”
6. Hall joins a tackle rotation that features Dalvin Tomlinson and free-agent signee Quinton Jefferson as starters, and Maurice Hurst, Shelby Harris and Siaki Ika as reserves. Lots of depth inside now. “It’s a lot like the Guardians have a reliever day, right, where they’re throwing five or six pitchers for one to two innings apiece,” Berry said. “That’s really how our defensive line rotation, that’s what it’s predicated upon, is guys throwing fastballs and then you’re really exchanging them out, almost like hockey shifts. That’s maybe a better analogy. So, we have to have depth there with the way that we play and the style of this specific scheme, and we feel good about the guys that we have in the room.”
7. Hall doesn’t turn 21 until June. He grew up a Browns fan in Garfield Heights and attended Benedictine HS as a freshman. His mom moved the family to Streetsboro for a better job and Hall transferred to Streetsboro HS. He said joining his hometown team is “the greatest feeling ever in the world.”
8. Cornerback Denzel Ward was happy about the selection of Hall. Ward said two weeks ago that he “put a little word in about some Buckeyes” when he returned to the facility for the start of the offseason program. “You can’t go wrong with any Buckeyes on the team,” said Ward, who saw the Browns add OSU offensive linemen Dawand Jones and Luke Wyplie last year. Asked specifically about the possibility of drafting Hall, Ward said, “I hope so. I hope so. That’s a good player coming out in the draft from Ohio State. He’d be a good addition to the team, I feel.”
9. Much like their division rivals, the Browns went with meat-and-potatoes with their early picks and addressed their lines of scrimmage, eschewing opportunities to add to skill positions such as receiver, running back or tight end. “I can’t help it if people don’t believe what I say every time I’m up here before the draft,” Berry said. “So, I mean, I think I’m pretty clear in terms of our philosophy in that regard.”
10. The Browns have four picks on Day 3 of the draft – one in the fifth round, one in the sixth and two in the seventh. Berry would love to parlay all of them to move into the fourth round or roll them all into picks in 2025.