On the road to a national championship, Grant Delpit got stuck between multiple realities. He was trapped between the player he was expected to be, the teammate he wanted to be and the pain he presently lived with.
The world expected Grant Delpit: All-American, the do-it-all superstar. The 2018 Delpit was arguably the best defensive back in the nation, a long, 6-foot-2, 213-pound Swiss Army knife who LSU used as a deep safety, an outside linebacker and a nickel corner. He flew around the field rushing quarterbacks, stuffing runs and picking off passes while compiling a stat sheet few players can match (five sacks, five interceptions, 9.5 tackles for loss, nine pass breakups).
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So Delpit was supposed to replicate it, or top it, in 2019, even though that was always going to be an impossible feat.
He tried to do too much, and he was criticized for it. Then he finally returned to form, and he went down with a painful ankle injury. He played through it, but that made him look worse.
It took Delpit being forced — yes, forced — to sit out a game for the Jim Thorpe Award winner to show up again.
“He was trying to repeat what he did last year, be the leader of the team on and off the field,” his father, Marc, said. “He was trying too hard. He wasn’t being Grant. He was trying to be somebody who he thought he should be, instead of playing his own game.”
Delpit was selected 44th overall by the Browns in the second round of the NFL Draft on Friday, a pick that is undoubtedly later than he expected a year ago but still proof of him ending the year doing just what his father said. He played his own game.
Down the final stretch of LSU’s title run — against Texas A&M, Georgia, Oklahoma and Clemson — Delpit looked like that superstar again, because he was finally healthy. He had an interception against Texas A&M, a sack against Georgia, a tackle for loss against Oklahoma and a sack and forced fumble against Clemson. Stats aside, he simply flew all over the place again.
Though the ups and downs of 2019 obviously filtered into his draft stock, you can’t understand what the Browns are getting out of Delpit without including that fantastic 2018. LSU used Delpit in its “quarter” role for most of the season, basically playing him as an outside linebacker/safety hybrid.
Then, when fellow starter John Battle missed the final stretch of the season, Delpit adjusted and simply played as a deep safety. He thrived there as well.
The frustrating part of 2019, though, was that LSU’s top two safeties — Delpit and JaCoby Stevens — were at their best in that quarter role. Because Delpit was the more versatile one, Delpit was primarily restricted to playing the deep safety role the first half the year. He was obviously still gifted at deep safety, but it meant one of the top players in the country was showcasing only half of his skills. It’s also what led to him trying to do too much at times.
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By October, against teams like Mississippi State and Auburn, he had found a balance with 16 tackles across those two wins. But he injured his ankle in the final minutes against Auburn. He had just two weeks to heal, yet he refused to sit out the Alabama game. Or the Ole Miss game.
“I admire him,” said LSU athletic trainer Jack Marucci, whom many NFL teams speak to about prospects. “There’s always people preying on these young guys saying, ‘You don’t need to push it. You’re gonna look bad. You can make it worse.’ But he never took that attitude.”
It wasn’t until after a poor and pained outing against Ole Miss that Marucci and LSU head coach Ed Orgeron had to force Delpit to sit out a game against Arkansas. It was one of the most important moves of the season.
Delpit finished the season strong and took home the Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in the nation. He showed he would play through an injury to help his teammates instead of worrying about his draft stock. He won a national championship.
And as the confetti swirled throughout the Superdome after the win, Tyrann Mathieu walked over to his fellow No. 7 and embraced him. He introduced him to his son.
“He like that,” Mathieu told his son. “He Grant Delpit.”
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
