The Panthers are turning to the hardwood for some help at tight end. The team announced today that they’ve signed former Division I college basketball player Colin Granger as a TE.
Granger spent five seasons playing basketball at Ohio, Western Carolina and Coastal Carolina, where he totaled 414 points and 322 rebounds. As ESPN’s David Newton notes, Granger was eligible to sign with any team since he’s five years removed from high school.
Granger hasn’t played football since the eighth grade, but he has the size to compete at the tight end spot. The rookie is listed at 6-foot-8 and 245 pounds, and he’s instantly the tallest player on the Panthers roster. Considering his size, it shouldn’t be a surprise that plenty of teams considered adding Granger as a prospect.
According to Tony Pauline of Sportkeeda.com, there was “legitimate interest in his talents,” and six teams attended Granger’s Pro Day last Friday. In addition to the Panthers (who actually hosted Granger on an official-3o visit), the attendees included the Falcons, Texans, Eagles, Seahawks, and Vikings, per Pauline.
Ultimately, the Panthers’ efforts worked out, and Granger will now join a growing list of former basketball players who are hoping to follow the successful paths laid out by Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, and Jimmy Graham. As Newton points out, Panthers head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan had success with a previous project when George Fant made the Seahawks as a tackle/tight end. According to Newton, Fant has worked with Granger and informed the Panthers leadership of his ability.
The Panthers have plenty of depth at tight end, but the team will presumably consider all of their options as they look to squeeze any production out of the position. The team’s current grouping includes the likes of Tommy Tremble, Ja’Tavion Sanders, Jordan Matthews, James Mitchell, and Dominique Dafney.
Fant and Graham did each play one season of college football, as did Julius Thomas, while Gonzalez played a lot more. Gates never played college football, but he played in high school and was recruited to college for both sports. Not having played since eighth grade is an added notch of difficulty, but it would be fun to see a 6’8 power forward at tight end.
I’m here to see it. In Granger’s favor, Carolina doesn’t have much in terms of vested or established talent ahead of him.
True, though I think Ja’Tavion Sanders was an absolute steal in last year’s draft and he was starting to show flashes before that scary week 12 injury. He also just turned 22 a couple weeks ago.
I also like Tommy Tremble, but I’ll admit that’s in part because of his name. Dude sounds like a 1960 rockabilly star.
The thing with Sanders is the mental mistakes. Drops, bad routes, and bad blocking really complicate his obvious athletic upside. There’s still time for him to shake those off as inexperience mistakes, but I personally would like to see more consistency from him before I’d say that he’s arrived. I do agree about his athleticism-he had a few really nice moments interspersed throughout the several games towards the end of the year.
I mean, teaching a guy (Granger) to play football while at its highest level is a real uphill battle, so I don’t expect to see a huge leapfrog here over Sanders. It is different than, say, having Travis Kelce and Noah Gray ahead of you taking snaps, though. Granger at least could potentially carve out a role at some point. Like you, I’ll be pretty stoked to see that.
I completely agree about Tremble. It’s either that or an unused name from The Replacements.