Summer is the most pivotal part of scouting for both teams and fans. The idea is to educate yourself on the players who could be selected in next April’s draft and who could play for or against the Vikings.
The latter part is critical to our Summer scouting here on Vikings Wire.
The Minnesota Vikings and General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah only have three picks in the 2025 NFL Draft heading into the Summer. More could be acquired through trade or the compensatory variety, but for now, that is all the ammo they have.
The lack of draft picks means this series will focus on the players we are likely to play against or who could cause problems for the team in the future. Every position will be covered so that you, the reader, can be a complete NFL fan as much as you are a Vikings fan. Educating yourself on these prospects is critical to better understanding the offseason as a whole, and we feel we can fill in the gaps.
Player data
Kenneth Grant
- Position: Defensive Line
- School: Michigan
- Height: 6-3
- Weight: 339 pounds
- Year: Third-year Junior
Player background
- 3-star recruit according to 247 Sports
- Played track and field in high school
- A two-way player in high school (played guard)
- Second-team All-Big Ten in 2023
Notable stats heading into the 2024 season
- 29 games
- 37 total tackles
- Five tackles for loss
- Three and a half sacks
- Five pass deflections
Notable PFF numbers
- 80.4 overall grade
- 73 run-defense grade
- 78.4 pass-rush grade
- 17 hurries
- 19 defensive stops
Player strengths
Strength
Regardless of position, Kenneth Grant is one of the strongest players in college football. He uses it to gain leverage on a player at a moments notice and win reps or disrupt plays. A prime example is that he can push a player back while keeping his head on a swivel to ensure he doesn’t misread any play. This department has very impressive stuff from Kenneth Grant.
Motor
What is all that horsepower worth if you don’t have great miles per gallon behind it? The motor that powers his strength and energy in each and every play shines through most on film. Even when he is seemingly taken out of plays, his motor allows him to recover on plays when he is taken out momentarily.
Play Recognition
Another trait that shines through is his ability to recognize plays repeatedly, whether it be finding the running lanes and clogging them or dismissing blockers from a play to get in the backfield and disrupt. This speaks to his ability to work on his game and study film, which tells us that his work ethic is strong enough to support further growth of his game.
Player summary
Kenneth Grant is a breath of fresh air in a defensive line group that is full of high-end prospects. He is one of the few players who still has plenty of room to grow into a variety of different player types. In 2024 he has a chance to continue to thrive off of being alongside Mason Graham, just as he benefits from playing alongside Grant. Together, they can be a dominant duo, but for Grant specifically, seeing him be more than a disrupter would be nice. Seeing some simple box score production would be nice, especially in the backfield, with a disrupting factor with tackles for loss or sacks. Either way, it won’t make or break his stock but instead just determine how mainstream he goes, he is a great player either way it just is whether he makes it into the first round or not.
