[JAFF]

Colts TE Kylen Granson's viral photo shoot shows just how much his confidence has grown

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kylen Granson stood in a pack of Colts players on the sideline and swore to them that he'd gotten in the end zone. The head referee was staring into a camera with the game on pause, but Granson knew he stretched the ball over the pylon.

He's been waiting for three years.

So when the official came back and turned Granson's 3-yard catch from Gardner Minshew into a 4-yard touchdown, he did a small jump on the sideline that barely hid the emptiness. After the game, he spoke of what he'd do for the second touchdown, how he'd make up for the dance he didn't get here, but he knew that wouldn't be enough.


He needed a ritual, not just to celebrate a touchdown but to signify the journey it took to go from a fourth-round pick who questioned his confidence as a rookie to the team's top tight end finally breaking the pylon in a game.


As he sat at home Monday night with a football in his arms, an idea popped into his head. He posed it to his girlfriend, Daisy:

He wanted to do a maternity shoot with the football.

"I got my nice cardigan. I got my nice sweater. Daisy got dressed to the nines," Granson explained on his Instagram. "We went literally to our backyard. I picked a couple of wildflowers, put them behind the ears and posed, and these were the masterpieces right here."


He posted 10 photos of himself holding a ball in a white blanket, tickling it, staring into its "eyes." Soon enough, it was all over the Internet, even on websites in Germany and Brazil.

Granson is pouring out through humor the confidence he used to seek as an NFL player. As a fourth-round pick out of Southern Methodist in 2021, he endured a bizarre rookie season with COVID-19 protocols that put barriers between him, his new Colts teammates and the public.


He was a kid from Texas trying to find a place on a professional football team in Indianapolis, and it wasn't easy to see. He was on the field for 21% of the snaps that season, catching just 11 passes, despite playing all 17 games. He wasn't earning the trust of Carson Wentz in the passing game, and he was trying to catch his strength up to fit in the running game at a slender 6-foot-2 and 242 pounds.

Sep 17, 2023; Houston, Texas, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) celebrates his touchdown with tight end Kylen Granson (83) against the Houston Texans during the first quarter at NRG Stadium.
Tight end is often considered the hardest position to adjust to from college to the NFL, and Granson felt those challenges like a pass-rush rep against a star edge rusher.

"Everything is moving fast. You're installing new plays, literally every single day," fellow tight end Mo Alie-Cox said of the transition. "You might not even have down what you did the day before and then they're putting in new stuff."


SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
News Across the U.S.
Access the digital replica of USA TODAY and more than 200 local newspapers with your subscription.
Click "Universal" in the eNewspaper
For subscribers:10 Colts film thoughts on Anthony Richardson, Gardner Minshew and a struggling secondary

Granson felt a boost the next offseason when he attended Tight End University and heard from stars such as Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Greg Olsen about their own vulnerabilities in trying to stick at this position. He entered the next training camp with a new approach, as Jack Doyle's retirement cleared the way for playing time, and now he had a veteran quarterback in Matt Ryan who had long excelled throwing to tight ends.


"I look more confident," he said one day that training camp, "because I am more confident."

But last season devolved into chaos for everyone in the Colts passing game. They cycled through three starting quarterbacks, two head coaches, three offensive coordinators and too many offensive line combinations to remember. They altered the blocking scheme, which at one point asked Granson to block Titans star defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons.

Granson finished with 31 catches for 302 yards, which ranked just behind Jelani Woods among Colts tight ends on a 4-12-1 team. But he would soon find himself with a new head coach in Shane Steichen, a new offensive coordinator in Jim Bob Cooter, a new tight ends coach in Tom Manning, a new quarterback in Anthony Richardson and a new offensive scheme.

Colts mailbag:How does the offense change if Gardner Minshew starts over Anthony Richardson?

He was in the most crowded position room on the roster, as the Colts rolled back last year's group, spent a fifth-round pick on Miami product Will Mallory and returned 2022 sixth-round pick Drew Ogletree from injured reserve.


A third-year player without a touchdown catch had something to prove.

But despite being just 25 years old, Granson was suddenly one of the most experienced options at the position, and he was the one who stayed healthy, as Alie-Cox, Woods, Ogletree and Mallory battled training camp injuries. When Woods aggravated a hamstring injury and wound up on injured reserve to miss at least the first four games, the receiving role fell primarily on his shoulders.

Now, he's trying to run with it. He has seven catches for 55 yards and a touchdown in two games, as the Colts are building a new passing attack with a 21-year-old Richardson. As the "move" tight end, built somewhat like an H-back, Granson has opened up schematic flexibility in both phases, which he showed off on Steichen's design on Sunday that called for every player to fake a run action to the left except for Granson to sneak back across the formation behind a hulking offensive line to be a lead blocker for Richardson's 15-yard rushing touchdown up the right sideline.

"You can really rely on Granson to be in the right place doing the right thing," Cooter said. "He works really hard to get open in the pass game and does a good job of doing that. He probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves for doing some of that dirty work in the run game, doing those blocking roles. ... We’ll continue to find different roles and different avenues he can help our offense.”

Indianapolis Colts tight end Kylen Granson has taken a lead role in the passing game in his third season.
He hasn't proven anything yet, except for a sense of humor that can go viral. He's used comedy to balance out the emotions, which hit him when his mother took hold of the first touchdown ball and held it like it was her own grandchild.

"You did it," she told him. "You made it."

He's already on to dreaming up the second touchdown celebration, which he initially said could involve a champagne bottle he'll hide in the goal post.

"I'm not paying your fine," Alie-Cox told him Sunday.

The way this week has unfolded, he's already dreaming bigger than that.

"I'm thinking about getting the wives and girlfriends together and we're going to do a double stroller," Granson said. 'We'll have a play date outing. I'm going to push them in the swing.

"You'll see. Just wait. We're going to go all-out for this one."