After having a “very serious” meeting with the Pittsburgh Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin at the NFL Scouting Combine earlier in the week, further fueling the hype train regarding a possible landing spot with the Black and Gold in the NFL Draft, Michigan defensive lineman Kenneth Grant hit a snag Thursday.
Grant won’t participate in on-field drills at the Combine due to a hamstring injury that popped up on an MRI, according to NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo.
“Michigan DT Kenneth Grant won’t do on-field drills in Indy after his MRI showed a mild hamstring strain, sources tell me and @RapSheet,” Garafolo writes on Twitter. “Grant was ready to put on a show, as @PSchrags noted, but he’s being held back. Will be ready to rock at pro day 3/21.”
That’s a bit of disappointing news, but it’s not the end of the world.
Coming into the Combine, Grant told Steelers Depot’s Jonathan Heitritter and Ross McCorkle that he was down from his playing weight of 345 pounds to 332 pounds to help with his testing.
Despite his girth, Grant is a guy who can play inside or outside along the defensive line and brings some explosive elements to the position. He was a guy Good Morning Football’s Peter Schrager tabbed as one who was going to put on a show with his size.
That won’t happen now, so we’ll have to wait until Michigan Pro Day on March 21. The Steelers are likely to have a large contingent in Ann Arbor, giving them an opportunity to get more eyes on players like Grant, and maybe even cornerback Will Johnson, who also opted out of Combine drills this week.
Players opting out of on-field drills at the Combine is becoming a bit of a concern. As Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer noted, it has to do in large part with the schedule for college football in the new 12-team playoff landscape.
“Combine drills start Thursday, and there are a lot of guys opting out. One reason why: the calendar. Ohio State and Notre Dame players didn’t finish their seasons until Jan. 20, and Penn State and Texas guys weren’t done until a week before that,” Breer wrote regarding the opt-outs. “Which puts those guys roughly a month and a half behind guys who started training at the end of the college season, at the November/December turn. The aforementioned four schools had 42 guys invited.”
Of course, Grant and Johnson played at Michigan, which didn’t make the CFP, and last played a bowl game on Dec. 31, so they’re not in the same grouping as the CFP teams. But it’s a trend worth monitoring moving forward.
