In one of the most shocking moves of the offseason, the Carolina Panthers signed a tight end to their roster. On the surface, it sounds like a straightforward move for a team trying to build around Bryce Young. But the surprise came in who they signed: Colin Granger.
Granger is a 6’8″ basketball player who hasn’t played organized football since eighth grade. Now, in a wild twist, he’s signed an NFL contract with the Panthers and joins a tight end room that was badly lacking depth. So how did the former Coastal Carolina basketball player get here?
Meet Colin Granger, the Newest Carolina Panther
The story started with an Instagram message. While with the Seattle Seahawks, offensive lineman George Fant reached out to Granger with an idea: try football. Granger was still in college at the time, wrapping up his basketball career, and while interested, he stayed focused on hoops.
But Fant didn’t let the idea go. He kept in touch and thought Granger had the tools to succeed as a tight end in the NFL. In an exclusive feature from the Panthers website, Fant shared why he believed in him:
“I had an idea of what I was looking for. From there, I started looking at certain statistics that I thought could translate to football, so I started looking at offensive rebounds, blocked shots, those are things that I think translate over. You got to be a physical player to get offensive rebounds and also understand you know how to use your body,” Fant said.
Eventually, that landed him on Granger. As his basketball career started to wrap up, he took the plunge. “He’s given me all the resources, all the confidence. George Fant changed my life.”
He got to train for three weeks before he had to make his case for scouts. Five teams — the Minnesota Vikings, the Seahawks, the Houston Texans, the Philadelphia Eagles, and of course, Carolina — responded. Two days later, he was a member of the Panthers’ roster for the 2025 season.
“This has been a whirlwind,” laughed Granger in disbelief. “This has been the craziest month of my entire life. It’s a blessing. I credit it all; I mean, I’ve been closer to God lately. I just think it’s completely—I couldn’t do this without God. I couldn’t do this without George.
“I couldn’t do this without my family. I mean, it’s amazing to me. It blows my mind every night. I mean, sometimes I sit there in shock at night.”
At 6’8″ and 245 pounds, he certainly has the frame to make it work. But the physical transition from basketball to football is a massive one, and that is where George’s biggest challenge lies. His incredible story caught the eye of ESPN, and he sat down on “NFL Live” to talk about his peculiar journey to the league.
“Honestly, my talks to the Carolina Panthers were not a whole lot,” George explained. “It was just me training for the pro day with I didn’t know what was in store. So when they hit me up after the pro day and the scout told me they’re interested and wanted me to come to the facility.”
As the story goes, he was a Panther before the end of the day. “It’s actually amazing because Dan [Morgan, general manager], Dave [Canales, head coach], and Pat [McPherson, tight ends coach], all were with George at Seattle when he first came into the league making his transition.”
From the sounds of it, they were immediately on board with the idea, albeit with the growing curve that Granger would need. “So it was cool to hear from them their plan of development. I think they all sort of believe in the development of this.”
If Granger can carve out a career for himself and become a productive part of the Carolina core, his transition might go down as one of the most bizarre and unexpected moves in recent NFL history.