This story has been updated to include Luke Floriea signing a contract.

BEREA — The litany of Mid-American Conference football players who have gone on to have success in the NFL is not a short one. Some of the Browns' biggest tormentors — and a couple of their biggest stars — over the years have come from the Ohio/Michigan-centric league.

Harold Fannin Jr., the Bowling Green State University tight end and Canton native, would love to become the next big Browns stars to come out of the league.

“I think my ceiling is high," Fannin said during Browns rookie minicamp. "I mean, I'm going to keep obviously being coachable. Just keep learning. That's really it. Just keep taking everything in and just keep wanting to grow really. So I think I got a high ceiling.”

Fannin was one of eight players out of the 47 the Browns had in for rookie minicamp who came from MAC schools. That includes Akron punter Avery Book and Kent State wide receiver Luke Floriea.

Book and Floriea were among six MAC products who were tryout players, althought Floriea was signed to a contract at the end of rookie minicamp. Defensive tackle Ralph Holley, a Western Michigan product, was signed to a reserve/futures contract in January.

"Oh, yeah, I definitely talked to them," Fannin said. "Us MAC guys, we stay kind of close. Yeah, we got a guy from Western Michigan. He was talking about the game.”

Fannin, though, was the only one in the rookie minicamp who the Browns drafted, taking him with pick No. 67 in the third round last month. That puts significantly more weight on him to ultimately live up to the draft status.

What it doesn't do is change the degree of difficulty in going from the MAC to the NFL. Fannin understands that jump is universal.

“I mean, right now it's going pretty smooth," Fannin said. "But obviously I'm guessing it's going to be a big jump. I’m not really thinking too much ahead, just taking it day by day.”

Fannin enters the league off the kind of season a college tight end dreams of having. He led all of FBS Division I in both receptions (117) and receiving yards (1,555), while having his two biggest performances come against Bowling Green's two biggest opponents, Penn State and Texas A&M.

That came in just his third season playing tight end full-time. Although Fannin was an offensive playmaker in high school at Canton McKinley, he was an All-Ohioan as a safety as a senior.

Canton McKinley grad Cleveland Browns tight end Harold Fannin Jr. (88) fields questions during a press conference before NFL rookie minicamp at the Cleveland Browns training facility on Friday, May 9, 2025, in Berea, Ohio.

“Yeah, I mean, I always played a little bit of offense in high school," Fannin said. "So then my clips or whatever from high school, my coach really liked them, thought I can put on a few more pounds, and it definitely helped me translate because playing safety and tight end, I pretty much end up playing against a lot of safeties. So I kind of got a good feel of what to do whenever I'm playing against them.”

That leaves, as Fannin himself said, a ceiling that is high. Can he reach that ceiling is the question he only started the very long journey toward trying to answer during the three-day rookie minicamp.

Fannin, like the rest of the draft picks, has said he will jump into the voluntary offseason program this week. That will finally give him an opportunity to meet David Njoku, the Browns Pro Bowl tight end whom Fannin said he hadn't met yet.

“I haven't talked to him yet," Fannin said, "but obviously I've been watching tape on him and stuff. Just trying to take little bits and pieces of his game and kind of use it to my advantage."

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'My ceiling is high': Harold Fannin Jr. wants to be next MAC-to-NFL standout with Browns