When you’re 6’3″ and 350 pounds and still reach a max speed of 18.75 mph, there’s only one word to describe you: freak. The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman shares the same opinion, placing Michigan DT Kenneth Grant on his 20th annual “Freaks List.”
Kenneth Grant Puts the ‘Freak’ in Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List
The Wolverines are no strangers to producing athletic marvels on the defensive line, with Rashan Gary (2019), Kwity Paye (2021), Aidan Hutchinson (2022), and Mazi Smith (2023) going in the first round of recent NFL Drafts.
Next off the conveyor belt is Mason Graham, who ranked No. 3 overall on College Football Network’s Top 100 college football players entering the 2024 season. Yet, he isn’t the only Michigan DT who could hear his name early in the NFL Draft.
Grant is the thunder to Graham’s lightning, using his natural size and power to knock back offensive linemen, collapse the pocket, and fill multiple gaps in the run game. After serving as a depth piece as a three-star true freshman, Grant earned the starting spot opposite Graham in 2023 and helped anchor a national championship-winning defense that ranked No. 2 in yards (239.7) and No. 1 in points (9.5) allowed per game.
His numbers weren’t gaudy (29 tackles, five TFLs, 3.5 sacks, and five PBUs), but they didn’t need to be with the amount of talent surrounding him.
However, with 13 players off to the NFL, including eight on offense, and a coaching change with Jim Harbaugh heading up the Los Angeles Chargers, the Wolverines will expect more from Grant in 2024.
“When Grant arrived in Ann Arbor as a three-star recruit from Indiana, Jim Harbaugh raved about the then-360-pounder running a sub-5.0 40,” Feldman wrote. “Anyone doubting Grant’s speed (a max of 18.75 mph on the GPS) only needed to see him run down Penn State running back Kaytron Allen in the open field last year.”
This play from Kenneth Grant is just wild to watch.
This man is 6’3 340 LBS tracking down Kaytron Allen 🤯 pic.twitter.com/o3EUFbBsSu
— Woodward Sports Network (@woodwardsports) November 11, 2023
Feldman continued, “His ability to fly up Michigan’s reactive plyo stairs test, a series of seven 26-inch-high stairs that players attempt to jump up as fast as possible, is truly freakish. This offseason, Grant pressed a 115-pound dumbbell 34 times on his right and 27 times on his left. He vertical-jumped 29 inches and did a Turkish get-up with a 150-pound dumbbell.”
KEEP READING: 2024 All-American College Football Preseason Team and Individual Honors
With his combination of size, speed, and power, Grant is poised to become the next Wolverine defensive lineman to blitz his way into the NFL, embodying the very definition of a “freak” on the field.
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