FOXBOROUGH – Ashton Grant wanted to be in the NFL, but as a player.
A Division II standout at Assumption University, Grant set school records for career receiving yards (3,204), career touchdown receptions (36), and single-season touchdown receptions (13).
After college, he earned a rookie minicamp invite with the Chicago Bears and then the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018. In both experiences, Grant felt let down. A small school prospect, he didn’t receive many reps in the practices he attended.
That ultimately led him to coaching at Holy Cross as a quality control coach in 2019. That year, his mother asked him what his goals were now that playing in the NFL was behind him. She mentioned coaching in the NFL. Grant thought that wouldn’t happen.
Little did he know, he’d be working with the Cleveland Browns the next year in 2020. This year, the 29-year-old is serving as a position coach for the first time, working with Patriots quarterbacks.
Grant said his NFL tryouts as a player made him want to coach.
“I wanted to be a player so bad, and then I got the opportunity to come to some rookie minicamps, and I didn’t get any reps, and I felt like I was super far behind all the guys who were,” Grant said. “And I just thought to myself, I want to be able to give back to players, so when they get an opportunity, they’re prepared for their moment. I did not think that I would be in the NFL as quickly as I did.”
In 2019, when he spoke to his mother about his goals, he said he hoped to be a graduate assistant with the University of Connecticut, adding he “couldn’t fathom” working for an NFL team.
Now, Grant is a coach on the rise.
This week, the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero posted a list of 26 young coaching candidates to know for the upcoming NFL hiring cycle. Underneath the main list was a section titled, “NFL coaches to watch in future years.”
Grant’s name was listed. The Patriots assistant was one of five coaches listed who were under the age of 30. Grant said it was flattering, but isn’t sure that becoming a head coach will be what he wants in the future.
Grant’s goal is to be an NFL offensive coordinator.
“I teeter on the line of whether I want to be a head coach or not,” Grant said. “But I’m not sure because a lot of that is not X’s and O’s anymore, which is what I love. But honestly, I just try to take it day by day and try to dominate my role.”
Grant earned his NFL opportunity in 2019 when he joined the Browns organization as the team’s first recipient of the Bill Walsh Coaching Fellowship. That program is designed to increase the number of full-time minority coaches, and all NFL teams participate.
With the opportunity, Grant stuck with Kevin Stefanski’s Cleveland staff. He was promoted to offensive quality control coach in 2021. In 2023, he was an offensive assistant who worked with quarterbacks. Grant met Mike Vrabel last year when Vrabel worked as a coaching and personal consultant in Cleveland.
That led to Grant getting his first position coaching job with the Patriots, where he works with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and the team’s quarterbacks.
“I get to be hip to hip with Josh,” Grant said. “Who learned from arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time. Who’s coached arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Who is arguably one of the greatest offensive coordinators of all time. All that experience has been mind-boggling for myself.”
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