Months ago Jack Johnson Jersey , Desmond Harrison was confident he'd replace Pro Bowl tackle Joe Thomas.

The Browns only realized it in the past few days.

An undrafted rookie with a checkered past, Harrison will open the season as Cleveland's starting left tackle 鈥?a position held down by Thomas, a future Hall of Famer, for more than a decade 鈥?on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"I'm replacing Joe, so I know how big it is," Harrison said.

It's a remarkable jump for Harrison, who last season was pile-driving players at Division II Georgia State after not playing for three years following his dismissal at Texas.

To Harrison, it's just football on a larger stage.

"It's a big leap," Harrison said Friday after coach Hue Jackson announced yet another transformation to his offensive line. "Kind of more people at the game, stuff like that. So that's probably like the only difference."

Well, there's also blocking Cam Heyward and the other Steelers, who led the NFL with 57 sacks a season.

But you gotta admire the rookie's swagger.

Harrison's ascension up the depth chart is the latest wrinkle up front for the Browns, who have been tinkering with the left side of their offensive line for weeks. The team recently slid left guard Joel Bitonio to tackle and plugged rookie Austin Corbett in at guard.

However, after four preseason games, Jackson and his coaching staff didn't like the line's makeup. Determined to put the "best five guys on the field," the Browns decided to go with the 6-foot-6 Eric Ebron Jersey , 305-pound Harrison who looks like he was engineered in a laboratory for left tackles.

"He looks like a left tackle in this league," Bitonio said.

Jackson said the 24-year-old Harrison has played like one.

"He is very talented," Jackson said. "He has earned it. He competed. When you put all of the different variables out there of what we could have done or would have done, and you look at it and you watch the practice tape and the game, he is the best left tackle for us to play right now.

"Obviously, Joel is the best left guard. We feel like we are heading in the right direction by far. I agonized over this decision because it is a huge decision. At the same time, I have confidence one, in our coaches, and in the player. He has worked hard. He wants this opportunity. He has demonstrated that."

Harrison took a unique, unorthodox path to the NFL.

A big-time high school recruit, Harrison committed to Auburn but didn't have the grades and started at Contra Costa (Calif.) Community College. He played two seasons of JUCO ball before transferring to Texas, where he played in seven games in 2013. But after reportedly failing multiple drug tests, he was suspended several times and eventually left.

He didn't play in 2015 and 2016, explaining he "was just getting myself right mentally."

Harrison started nine games last season at West Georgia, compiling a dominant highlight tape that looks like excerpts pulled from the movie "Blindside." He missed the Senior Bowl because of a sprained knee and failed a drug test at the NFL Scouting Combine in February.

He admitted the drug test probably cost him being drafted, but the Browns signed him as a free agent in May.

From the moment he arrived at rookie mini-camp Womens Joey Bosa Jersey , Harrison said he knew he would take over for Thomas, the 10-time Pro Bowler who retired in March following a remarkable career that included never missing a snap 鈥?10,363 straight 鈥?until an injury ended his 2017 season.

How did Harrison know?

"Just how confident I am in myself," he said.

Bitonio likes everything about Harrison.

"It's obviously going to be a big jump Sunday when you're playing in front of 60,000 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a vaunted defense, but I think he's ready," Bitonio said. "I think the coaches and upper management have made that decision and they trust him and they know he's going to get better every rep that he's out there to improve. He's a confident, kid, though.

"I know he feels like he belongs out there."

The Minnesota Wild lost the puck and the lead – and eventually Game 1.

Patrick Laine tied it at 4:51 of the third period off the turnover, defenseman Joe Morrow scored with 6:13 left and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Wild 3-2 on Wednesday night for the first playoff victory in franchise history.

”It’s nice to have won one now because that was kind of what people talked about before – this team has never won a playoff game, they’ve only been there twice,” said Bryan Little, who joined the team in 2007-08. ”It’s nice to get that off our backs and, hopefully, we get a lot more.”

In the franchise’s only other playoff appearances since joining the NHL in 1999 in Atlanta Jesper Bratt Jersey Kids , the club was swept in 2007 by the New York Rangers and 2015 by Anaheim.

”We had an opportunity with the lead in the third period and our goaltender playing good, we thought we had a chance to win,” Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”You can’t give No. 29 (Laine) a chance right down the slot to score on a turnover. You’re looking for disaster there.

”It was a bad turnover. When you turn the pucks over in the middle of the ice. He deked our player, we didn’t hold the middle, and he got to come right down Main Street.”

Nikolaj Ehlers set up Morrow at the point for a one-timer that beat goalie Devan Dubnyk.

”I’ve had a major roller-coaster of an NHL career so far,” the 25-year-old Morrow said. ”To have a little, I don’t even know if you want to call it a Cinderella story of a night tonight, it makes you feel good. It makes all of the bad times and all of the times you’ve battled so hard to try and get an opportunity, it makes them go away. It washes them away and you get to enjoy it in front of a crowd like this and a city like this.”

Morrow was acquired at the trade deadline from Montreal in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick.

”Awesome to see a guy step in, new to the team a little bit, and have a huge effect,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. ”He’s fit in seamlessly with our group. For a guy like him it’s tough, because he’s never really had an established role. Somebody who’s kind of on the outskirts, or in and out a bit.”

Mark Schiefele added a power-play goal, and Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves for the Jets.

Matt Cullen and Zach Parise scored for Minnesota, and Dubnyk stopped 37 shots.

Game 2 is Friday night in Winnipeg.

Laine tied it at 2 at 4:51 of the third period Braden Holtby Jersey , putting a high wrist shot past Dubnyk on the glove side.

Winnipeg outshot Minnesota 13-4 in the scoreless first period. Dubnyk had to make a couple of big saves in the last three minutes, including a pair from close in by Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Copp.

The Jets had the game’s first power play 24 seconds into the middle period after Minnesota’s Eric Staal was called for tripping.

Dubnyk made a save on a blast from Scheifele, while two of Laine’s trademark blasts from the right circle went wide of the net and the other was blocked by Nate Prosser’s arm.

Byfuglien was sent to the box six minutes later for roughing and Minnesota put a few shots at Hellebuyck, but it was the Jets who capitalized on their second chance with the man advantage.

Twenty seconds after Prosser was called for holding, Blake Wheeler sent a pass to an open Scheifele in the slot for his one-time at 17:37.

The Wild outshot the Jets 12-8 in the second.

Cullen took a backhand pass from Jordan Wheeler and beat Hellebuyck on the blocker side at 1:46 of third period to tie it.

Parise quickly put the visitors ahead at 3:58 on a 2-on-1 with Mikael Granlund after a Winnipeg turnover.

”We were able to give ourselves a chance a grab a lead there and even when it’s tied we were still in good shape,” Parise said. ”I don’t think (we took our foot off the gas). …. They were aggressive all over the ice. I think when we didn’t get it behind them. That’s when we let them keep coming back at us.”

Laine’s tying goal came 53 seconds later after Jets center Paul Stastny absorbed a hit to give Laine some time and space.

Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves for the Jets, who finished second overall in the NHL and Central Division with 114 points (52-20-10).

Matt Cullen and Zach Parise scored for Minnesota. Dubnyk stopped 37 shots for the Wild, who were third in the division with 101 points (45-26-11).

Cullen and Parise scored a little over two minutes apart to give the Wild a 2-1 lead at 3:58 of the third, but Laine tied it at 4:51.

”I think we view this as a missed opportunity,” Cullen said. ”I don’t think we played as well as we can. I think we showed pieces of our game, but I don’t think we played to our level.”

Minnesota is competing in its sixth straight post-season. Last year, the Wild lost their first-round series to St. Louis in five games.

Fans are primed for these playoffs. The ”whiteout” crowd of more than 15,000 were chanting ”Go Jets Go” and waving white towels before the puck even dropped. Next door to Bell MTS Place, a block was closed for a street party, highlighted by the game shown on two giant screens for fans in the NHL’s smallest market.

Jets forward Mathieu Perreault left in the second period with an upper-body injury and head coach Paul Maurice had no update.

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