Kenneth Grant Explains Rationale for Slimming Down

Kenneth Grant Explains Rationale for Slimming Down

Defensive tackle and Indiana native Kenneth Grant had a letdown of a rookie season. The No. 13 overall pick by the Miami Dolphins in the 2025 NFL Draft was a low-tier defender in his maiden campaign, according to one important statistic.

Pro Football Focus gave Grant a defensive rating of just 48.4 in 2025 — that ranks 107th out of 134 qualified interior defenders around the league. Maybe Grant realizes that he’s in desperate need of a bounce-back year in his second pro season in 2026, because he recently revealed that he’s slimmed down a bit.

According to him, he’s already lost seven pounds this offseason, and the goal is to lose five more to get him to that 325 mark heading into training camp. Grant made it clear that he’s losing weight in order to become a more explosive player on the defensive side of the ball.

“I just feel like I’m more explosive,” Grant said. “That’ll translate on the field coming out of my stance and getting into blockers and things like that. Overall, I feel better, I feel more explosive and ready to go for this season.”

Unfortunately, Grant wasn’t the only first-year lineman who struggled to find his footing with the Dolphins a season ago. With the No. 37 overall pick, an early second-round choice, Miami drafted offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea, and Pro Football Focus had him ranked dead-last among 81 qualified offensive guards in 2025.

The Dolphins’ first two picks in last year’s draft are staring down the barrels of make-or-break seasons, but there’s a unique amount of pressure on Grant to perform because he was drafted so high. Back when he was drafted, he signified their highest pick since they took wide receiver Jaylen Waddle — who is now with the Denver Broncos following an offseason trade — at No. 6 overall in 2021.

Hopefully, Grant’s physical transformation will pay dividends on the field, and he will look more like the player the Dolphins hoped they were drafting as a sophomore. If he doesn’t, the young man could quickly go down as one of the team’s bigger draft misses in recent memory.