Editor's note: Tony Grossi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN 850 WKNR.

About time: When the Browns signed Texas A&M center Mike Matthews as an undrafted free agent, it was more than a nice story. It was an emotional occasion for the Matthews family.

Mike is the nephew of Browns linebacker great Clay Matthews and the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bruce Matthews.

The Browns somehow missed out on four other Matthews boys who made it to the NFL in recent years – two linebackers and two offensive linemen.

“It’s about time they got one. They could’ve had one about seven years ago, right?” Clay said from southern California on Tuesday.

He was jabbing the Browns’ regrettable snub in 2009 of his son, Clay III, a linebacker, like his dad, who has earned Pro Bowl accolades in six of his seven years in the NFL.

And if there was an edge to Clay’s comment, it’s because it really – really -- means a lot to the Matthews family that one of their own is wearing the brown and orange once again.

“People forget that I wasn’t in the league for five years while my brother played for the Browns,” Bruce said from his home in Sugarland, Texas. “I was a die-hard Browns fan. And all of a sudden I get drafted to a team (former division rival Houston Oilers) that plays them twice a year. For me, it really was an adjustment when we started playing the Browns. It was like, ‘There’s Brian Sipe over there. There’s Doug Dieken, oh my God.’ It took me the better part of two or three years to get my mind right when we played the Browns.

“So I love the story of the Browns. I loved every time we played them in Cleveland. I’m excited for him.”

Bruce adored his older brother Clay and would brag to his son what a great player Uncle Clay was. “As good an all-around defensive player there was,” Bruce said of Clay.

Mike, the son of a Hall of Famer, would nod and roll his eyes. He never fully grasped the truth of his dad’s words until seeing a picture of Uncle Clay in a Browns meeting room among a gallery of Browns Pro Bowl players.

“When he saw his picture on the wall, it really impacted him,” Bruce said. “I thought that was really cool.”

True grit: So how does a three-year starting center at Texas A&M with the Matthews bloodlines not get drafted, not get invited even to the NFL combine?

He happens to be the runt of the Matthews litter, barely 6-2 and a shade under 300 pounds, with arms shorter than ideal for the prototype NFL center.

“It’s ridiculous,” Bruce says, dismissively. “Yeah, he’s just below whatever that ideal size is.”

Bruce weighed 270 pounds when he was the ninth overall pick of the famous draft of 1983, which produced fellow Hall of Famers John Elway, Eric Dickerson, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino and Darrell Green.

“Things were a little different back then,” Bruce said. “The freaks were the guys over 300 [pounds]. Now the freaks are the guys under 300.

“The thing that has always stood out for Mike -- and [brothers] Kevin and Jake [a first-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons in 2014] got sick of hearing it -- he plays with an edge. It’s what you want everyone in that offensive line room to play with. When he gets comfortable in the system, he’s the guy hustling downfield, making the extra effort, bringing that nasty attitude. I’ve told him that’s his best quality.

“I told him, 'You’re not going to drive anybody three yards off the ball.' No one drives anyone three yards off the ball. If you did, that guy is going to be hitting the bricks the next week. It’s so much about emphasizing where your help is and emphasizing proper technique and body position and footwork.

“Effort and tenacity are his biggest strengths. Which isn’t to say he isn’t a good athlete. He moves around, good footwork, but that’s what’s going to set him apart.”

Clay said that Mike was “such a high energy kid, not like a typical offensive lineman … I thought he’d be the one defensive player from that side of the family.”

“There are guys who look like football players and there are guys who are football players, and they don’t always come in the same package. There are guys with that football IQ and they can get done what you want to get done. And there are other guys who physically seem to have everything but they just don’t get the game. He’s a kid who gets the game, who wants to do well, who’s high energy. All of those things. Would you like him to be bigger? Sure. But I think all those other things are good to bet on.”

Realistic expectations: As the draft winded down without Mike’s name being called, and Mike’s spirits dropped, older brother Kevin, who was with him, held his thumb and forefinger inches apart and said, “If you were just this much taller, you’d have been drafted already.”

Like Mike, Kevin was undrafted in 2010. He worked his way up from the Tennessee Titans practice squad and scratched out a five-year career as a center and guard with three teams before retiring last year.

“Mike’s well aware of the realities of the NFL,” Bruce said. “He’s been around it. He’s hoping to make the practice squad and then work up from there.

“We’ve had the conversation. I’ve said, ‘Mike, you don’t even know what you don’t know. The step up for an offensive lineman, for a center, the guy running the show and making the line calls, you don’t even know what you don’t know, but you’re going to find out real quick.’”

Sure enough, after his rookie minicamp last week, Mike called his dad and exclaimed, “Man, there’s so much stuff.”

Will Mike Matthews make the family proud? Just by virtue of wearing a Browns uniform, he already has.