Kylen Granson (born March 27, 1998) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

for the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

and SMU before being drafted by the Colts in the fourth round of the

2021 NFL Draft The 2021 NFL Draft was the 86th National Football League Draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland from April 29 to May 1, 2021 ...

Early years

Granson was born in

DeMotte, Indiana DeMotte is a town in Keener Township, Jasper County, Indiana, United States. The population was 3,814 at the 2010 census. History DeMotte was made a station by the New York Central Railroad when the line was extended to that point in the early ...

, and grew up in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, where he attended Westlake High School. Granson was named second-team All-District 14-6A as a senior. He was not heavily recruited and committed to play college football at Rice over an offer from Harvard.

College career

Granson began his collegiate career playing wide receiver for the Rice Owls. As a freshman he caught 33 passes for 381 yards and two touchdowns followed by 18 receptions for 241 yards in his sophomore season. Granson left the program following the firing of Rice head coach

David Bailiff David Edward Bailiff (born May 26, 1958) is an American football coach and former player. He was most recently the head coach at Texas A&M University–Commerce from 2019-2022; prior to that he was the head coach at Rice University in Houston, Tex ...

and enrolled at Austin Community College, hoping to join the Texas Longhorns as a walk-on. Granson had a chance encounter with Bailiff on the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

campus, who did not know that he had left Rice and began contacting college coaches on Granson's behalf. SMU coach

Sonny Dykes Daniel "Sonny" Dykes (born November 9, 1969) is an American football coach, and a former college baseball player. He is currently the head football coach at Texas Christian University (TCU), and previously served in the same role at Southern Meth ...

offered Granson a spot as a walk-on. Granson sat out his first season at SMU per NCAA transfer rules and was awarded a scholarship. As a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

junior, he caught 43 passes for 721 yards and nine touchdowns and was named second-team All- American Athletic Conference (AAC). He was named first-team All-AAC after finishing his redshirt senior season with 35 receptions for 536 yards and five touchdowns. Granson's 14 touchdown receptions set a new school record for tight ends.

Professional career

Granson was selected by the

in the fourth round with the 127th overall pick in the

. He signed his four-year rookie contract with Indianapolis on May 19, 2021.

References

External links

Rice Owls bioSMU Mustangs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Granson, Kylen 1998 births American football tight ends Living people Players of American football from Austin, Texas Rice Owls football players SMU Mustangs football players Indianapolis Colts players