Thayer Munford Jr. was like 'older brother' for Browns' Dawand Jones while at Ohio State

Thayer Munford Jr. is no small man. The former Massillon and Ohio State product now with the Las Vegas Raiders stands 6-foot-6, 325 pounds.

Yet Munford can remember what he thought the first time he met his former Buckeyes teammate Dawand Jones.

"That's some big s***," Munford said with a laugh last week in a phone interview with the Beacon Journal. "In reality, though, it's like, 'Wow, he is a massive human being.'"

The 6-foot-8¼, 374-pound frame Jones possesses has been central to every discussion about the big right tackle. It was when he was coming out of Indianapolis Ben Davis High School, it was when he became a starter for Ohio State as a junior and it was when the Browns made him the No. 111th pick early in the fourth round of the NFL Draft a little more than a week ago.

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Jones, though, may not have found his way to starting at Ohio State, let alone being an NFL draft pick, if not for Munford.

"He had a great influence," Jones said on a draft-day conference call with Cleveland-area media. "He helped me all the time. After our first year, I kind of struggled in the offense. He just take me under his wing and he protect me like I was his little brother."

At the time Jones arrived in Columbus in 2019, Munford was heading into his third season with the Buckeyes. He had earned a starting job the previous season, one he would hold onto throughout his Ohio State career.

What Munford could see in Jones, in a lot of ways, was no different than what he himself had gone through when he arrived in college. When Jones came to him with his troubles early in August camp, that's when he decided to wrap one of his own big arms around the massive shoulders of his new teammate.

"It was a lot of stuff that was going on with him, and at one point he told me, 'I don't know if this is for me,'" Munford said. "I'm like, 'Look, brother, if you stick it out, you're going do fine.' He going to be completely fine, because he's big enough, he's strong enough and he's fast enough that he should be one greats. At the same time, I told him it's also his mindset, too. How well can he push himself to actually become that person?"

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Jones played in 15 games over his first two seasons. He started one game at left tackle in 2020, interestingly enough because of Munford missing a game due to COVID protocols.

However, it was going into the 2021 season when Munford made a major impact in helping Jones reach another level. That's when Munford made the choice to slide over from left tackle to left guard, a move that had ripple effects down the Ohio State offensive line.

"To be honest, my last year I wanted to stay at tackle," Munford said. "But looking at Dawand and looking at everybody else, I'm like, 'Dang, we really don't have nobody else to go to guard.'"

So Munford slid inside to guard next to another Browns' draft pick from last month, center Luke Wypler. Nicholas Petit-Frere flipped from right tackle to Munford's old spot on the left side, while Jones stepped in next to guard Paris Johnson Jr. on the right side.

All five of those linemen ended up being drafted over the last two drafts. Johnson was a first-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals last month, Jones and Wypler both ended up with the Browns in the same draft, Petit-Frere went in the third round last year to the Tennessee Titans and Munford went in the seventh round to the Raiders.

Munford, who was voted a team captain for the Buckeyes that season, had a caveat to the move that essentially put the onus on Jones to prove he could handle the work. It was a blunt comment, but it epitomized the relationship the two linemen had developed.

"I told him that I always give my honest answer to him because, with people like me and him and other people in the league, we always been talked around too much instead of giving a real answer," Munford said. "And for him to see that and all my other teammates that I played with my last year, they respect me for that. … So with him, I told him, 'If you can get your stuff mental right to play tackle in college, I'll move to guard.'

"And I kept my word for it, and we had our ups and downs but, at the same time, that's my brother at the end of the day."

Jones ended up starting all 13 games for the Buckeyes at right tackle that season. The following season, with Munford a rookie in Las Vegas, he extended that starting streak to 26 in a row over his final two seasons.

Now Jones will try to make an even bigger jump than the one he had to make between his sophomore and junior years at Ohio State. With the Browns, he'll be working with Bill Callahan, arguably the best offensive line coach in the NFL, in a position group that may be one of the best in the league when healthy.

Jones isn't going to be asked to be a day-one starter, with Jack Conklin back at right tackle. What he will be asked to do is dispel any concerns that may have arisen about him in the pre-draft process.

The Browns have no worries about Jones' love for basketball, which was insinuated as an issue for some teams that he tried to swat down last week. Nor were they concerned about him cutting short his stay at the Senior Bowl practices.

The biggest question is motor. Jones' former teammate believes the answer should please the Browns.

"They're getting a worker," Munford said. "They got a person that wants to work hard and wants to be better. If he needs help, I'll be there right with him if he needs it. But, at the same time, he's going to be a grown man and learn how to handle stuff himself."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Thayer Munford Jr. served as 'older brother' for Browns' Dawand Jones