While the Miami Dolphins finally looked like a genuine NFL offense in Week 2 following their nightmare of a start to the 2025 season, the team fell to 0-2 in a defeat against the rival New England Patriots after Anthony Weaver's defense failed to even put up a fight against Drake Maye.
While the struggles point to more than just one player, some fans may have been hoping for more of an impact from No. 13 overall pick Kenneth Grant. The former Michigan man is looking like the same one-dimensional player some of his pre-draft critics thought he would be in the NFL.
After two weeks, Pro Football Focus gave Grant a 47.5 overall grade, which ranks ninth out of 13 qualified rookie defensive tackles. Keep in mind that this number came after an improved performance against New England, which should illustrate how poor he was against Indianapolis.
While Grant did have the second-best run defense grade of any Dolphins player at 69.8 last week, he is looking like the player critics thought he would be in the NFL. Grant can eat up space, but his pass rush upside is very limited.
Dolphins rookie DT Kenneth Grant struggling in first two NFL games
Grant was never much of a pass rusher in college, as he amassed just 6.5 sacks during three seasons in Ann Arbor. Of those 6.5 sacks, 2.5 of them came against lowly UNLV and Northwestern. These numbers also were tallied alongside Top 5 pick Mason Graham, who is second among rookie DTs with a 64.2 grade for the Cleveland Browns.
Grant spent a good chunk of the game going up against promising Patriots center Jared Wilson, and the undersized Georgia product seemingly got the better of Grant after not allowing any pressures throughout the game.
Becoming a quality pass rusher will be integral to Grant living up to the hype. Without any sort of pass rush threat, Grant is nothing more than a solid run-stuffer. That is certainly worth investing in, but not with a No. 13 pick and the expectation he would become a defensive cornerstone.
Grant obviously has a ton of time to prove he will be a future star for Miami, and it is hard for one individual player to stand out in this sloppy miasma of a defense, but he has not started off his career in the grand style that many optimistic Dolphins fans were expecting.