Kenneth
Grant.
Kenneth
Grant.
Michigan· 6'4"· 331 lb
"A true nose tackle who plays like a much smaller man once the ball leaves the pocket, pairing a 330-pound anchor with chase range that shows up 20 yards downfield."Pre-draft read
Grant aligns as a 0- or 1-technique in an even front, sliding to 3-technique on passing downs. His primary trait is raw displacement: he stacks a center with a long-arm and squeezes the guard's help until the interior gap vanishes. His secondary trait is chase, pursuing flat down the line and finishing plays outside the numbers, uncommon for his size.
His hands are strong and heavy but reset late, so his best pass-rush wins come from bull-to-jerk conversions, not counters. His feet are quicker laterally than his frame suggests, allowing him to cross a center's face on slants. His run eyes are excellent, reading combo blocks early and pressing double-teams backward. He also owns the best pass-breakup history of any Michigan defensive lineman, batting balls with timing.
One-gap 4-3 penetrating front with a strong nickel identity, prioritizing inside pressure from the tackles and active linebackers.
Grant's ceiling is an immediate rotational nose tackle with subpackage flexibility, working into an every-down two-gapping run stuffer who anchors the run defense and creates opportunities for pass rushers.
A Fangio two-high defense that prioritizes athletic edge rushers and smaller, quicker interior linemen to open up lanes for stunt games would not maximize Grant's unique athletic and power traits.
Grant is a rare blend of size, power, and surprising movement skills for his weight, making him an ideal anchor for any defense focused on stopping the run between the tackles.
NFL Draft Highlights: DL Kenneth Grant | Michigan Football
Conference cut-up of Grant's Michigan tape, heavy on double-team displacement and chase tackles.
Kenneth Grant Full College Football Highlights | Michigan DT
Full pre-draft reel covering the 2023 title season and his 2024 All-American junior year.
Rookie Kenneth Grant Full Week 3 Highlights | All Snaps vs Bills
Every-snap rookie-year study showing how the anchor translated against an NFL interior.
Grant projects as an interior anchor whose run defense provides a high floor, with rare chase speed for his size suggesting a higher ceiling than a traditional two-down player. Teams value his ability to occupy multiple blockers on early downs, freeing up linebackers while still maintaining gap control. His 5.07-second 40-yard dash time at 331 pounds indicated an athletic profile that exceeded expectations for his position and body type.
He played every game of his three-year career at Michigan, starting 17 contests, primarily as a 0- or 1-technique in a physical rotation. His role was designed to absorb blocks and create disruption rather than accumulate tackles and sacks, which were often collected by teammates. The defining moment of his evaluation was a viral chase-down tackle against Penn State in 2023, showcasing an unexpected level of functional athleticism.
Evaluators were split on his draft stock, with some placing him in the middle of the first round and others in the early second, due to concerns about weight fluctuations and a limited pass-rush plan. Despite these flags, he was drafted by the Miami Dolphins at pick 13, reflecting a bet on his rare movement skills within his large frame. His rookie year yielded 33 tackles and two sacks, consistent with an early-down anchor.
- 01
Point-of-attack anchor
Absorbs double teams without surrendering ground and consistently presses the combo block backward, closing the A-gap before a back can press his aiming point.
- 02
Chase range
Pursues flat down the line and finishes plays outside the hash at 330 pounds, a trait confirmed by the viral Penn State run-down that no other interior body in the class matched.
- 03
Grip strength
Long-arms centers into their own backfield and controls the block with heavy hands, allowing him to shed late and still make the tackle inside his gap.
- 04
Ball production for a nose
Owns the most pass breakups by a Michigan defensive lineman on record, timing bat-downs when the pocket sets and turning stalled rushes into disrupted throws.
- 05
Big-game durability
Appeared in every game across three seasons, including a 15-game national title run, and never missed availability despite carrying an outlier playing weight.
- 01
Pass-rush plan
Wins are almost entirely power-based; he lacks a reliable counter when the initial bull stalls and can spend long stretches of third down neutralized by a set anchor.
- 02
Hand reset speed
Hands land heavy but recycle late, letting experienced centers latch and ride him past the quarterback once the first punch is absorbed.
- 03
Weight management
Reported as high as 359 pounds before the 2023 season and played in the low 330s afterward, a swing that put conditioning at the center of his medical and staff interviews.
- 04
Pad level inconsistency
Rises out of his stance against quick-set combos and loses the leverage battle to shorter interior blockers who fire low on down blocks.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
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| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Michigan | 14 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Michigan | 15 | 27 | 2.5 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | Michigan | 13 | 32 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Career | — | 42 | 67 | 5.5 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- CFP national champion (2023)
- Third-team AP All-American (2024)
- Second-team All-Big Ten (2023, 2024)
- Two-time Big Ten champion (2022, 2023)
An early-down block-eater whose value shows in the run defense around him rather than in his own stat line.
A nose tackle whose athletic outlier traits eventually produced real interior pass rush on top of run dominance.
A first-round nose whose conditioning and one-dimensional rush limited him to a rotational early-down role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Michigan built its national title defense on the idea that a center could be moved backward on early downs, and Kenneth Grant was the physical argument for it. He was never the leading man in that front — Mason Graham took the double-team attention and the higher grade — but Grant's job description was clearer and, in some ways, harder: hold two blockers, keep the linebackers clean, and do it without disappearing when the count of snaps climbed. He did that for three seasons without missing a game, which mattered to teams evaluating a body that once carried 359 pounds. Michigan's front held opponents under a 2.65 defensive line-yards figure during the 2023 title run, and Grant's A-gap work was the reason interior runs died before they reached the second level. What separated him from every other big man in the class was not the anchor, though; it was the tape of him running down a Penn State back from behind. That clip circulated for a reason. It gave evaluators permission to imagine a third-down role that his sack total never promised.
The concerns were honest ones. Grant's pass rush was one long bull rush with a jerk counter attached, and against a center who absorbed the first punch he could vanish for a series. His hands landed heavy but reset slowly, and his pad level rose against quick-set combos. Michigan's 2024 defense saw its stuff rate dip to 17.6 percent as the front rotated more bodies, and Grant's per-snap efficiency became a real question for teams projecting him to a full-time interior workload. Miami took him 13th anyway, betting that the floor of a run-game eraser justified the pick even if the rush never arrives. The rookie year read exactly as advertised: 17 games, five starts, 33 tackles and two sacks — numbers that describe an early-down anchor learning to play more than early downs. The verdict is still open, and it hinges on whether the chase speed that made him a first-rounder can be weaponized as a rusher rather than admired as a curiosity.