About twenty years ago we gave the original proof of the so-called “syzygy theorem” [6], at least in the case of a local integral domain containing a field. In the intervening years several different styles of proofs and generalizations have appeared (e.g., see our monograph [7, Chapter 3]). Perhaps the most notable of these were the characteristic p proof of Hochster and Huneke [12] and the generalization by Bruns [2] in which the minimal free complex is allowed some positive homology (see [3, 9.5.5]). In addition Dutta [5] and Hochster [11] combined to show that the crucial argument in [6] which rested upon the existence of maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules could be reduced to an application of the weaker canonical element theorem which holds in the equicharacteristic setting (see also Ogoma [13]). Our original proof [6] relied heavily on the fact we were able to show order ideals of minimal generators for kth syzygies of finite projective dimension must have grade at least k. We have long known that a single minimal generator with this property would suffice. Until now we remained unaware of any context in which one could actually apply this (no doubt well-known) fact. However, a recent examination of a graded version of the syzygy theorem in mixed characteristic produced just such a situation. To be specific, we are able to show (see Theorem 8 and Corollary 9), under suitable conditions, a nonfree graded kth syzygy of finite projective dimension over a graded ring R = R0 ⊕R1 ⊕R2 ⊕ · · · must have rank at least k, where the ring R0 is a discrete valuation ring. Other than the observation described above, our techniques are simply a straightforward blend of those from our original manuscript and standard facts about graded rings and modules. In order to keep the exposition somewhat self contained, we supply a few elementary observations which can be found in some form in our articles [6], [7], [8] or Bruns-Herzog [3, Chapter 9]. These observations or facts about syzygies have been tailored to the context of graded modules over R = R0 ⊕ R1 ⊕ R2 ⊕ · · · as described above.