2024 Grit Index: Identifying which NFL Draft prospects are ‘Dan Campbell guys’

The 2024 Grit Index. Sorting through the grittiest players in the NFL Draft and looking for Dan Campbell/Detroit Lions type guys.

The Grit Index is back for the 2024 NFL Draft.

The Detroit Lions organization foundation is built on the concept of grit and the players that end up on the roster tend to be a reflection of their coach, Dan Campbell. “Grit” is literally written on the wall of the team meeting room, and was a key concept during the 2023 NFL season.

“It’s our core foundation, men. Grit,” Campbell told the team during the season opener of HBO’s Hard Knocks series in 2022. “And what does it mean? Really, in a nutshell, I think it means this: we’re going to go a little bit longer, we’ll push a little harder, and we’ll think a little deeper, and a little sharper. To me, it means, we’ll play you anywhere. We’ll play you on grass, we’ll play you on turf, we’ll go to an (explicative) landfill. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you have one ass cheek and three toes, I’ll beat your ass.”

But “grit” is not something easily identifiable and last season I set out to try and find a way to identify this trait among NFL Draft prospects. I enlisted the help of my buddy Anthony (@Btwn_TheNumbers on Twitter) and the two of us (mainly Anthony) scoured through draft evaluations looking for key terms that would qualify a player as having “grit.”

Sources

Some of the draft analysts we used for this project included The Athletic’s Dane Brugler (specifically his draft guide affectionately called The Beast but other articles as well), Lance Zierlein’s draft profiles at NFL.com, NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, ESPN’s Jordan Reid, and Bleacher Report’s Brandon Thorne, to name a few.

Key Terms

First, we revisited the key terms we used last season, keeping in mind that each of these words needed to be met with context and used in a positive manner when describing the prospect. Second, in addition to the key terms used previously, we also used several synonyms of those words to help expand our accuracy.

• Grit
• Intangibles
• Football character
• Work ethic
• Dominant
• Warrior
• Nasty
• Effort
• Unsung hero
• Elite (as an intangible)
• Locker room guy
• Competitor

Tiers

A new feature we added this year is a tiering system, where a player’s “grit tier” will improve depending on the frequency with which they have the key terms show up in their draft profiles. We tried to keep the tiering system simple and easy to consume, with Tier 1 being the best tier, Tier 2 the next best, and Tier 3 indicating a qualification but with a minimal amount of key terms used.

For more information

In order to keep this list consumable, we have not included all of our (again, mainly Anthony) research in this article, but have provided it as a companion piece to my Lions-based draft board (available via Patreon).

Let’s take a look at the results (Note: prospects are listed in order of rank on my Lions-based draft board).

Quarterback

• Jayden Daniels, LSU (Tier 2)
• J.J. McCarthy, Michigan (1)
• Michael Penix, Washington (3)
• Michael Pratt, Tulane (2)
• Devin Leary, Kentucky (3)
• Sam Hartman, Notre Dame (3)
• Austin Reed, Western Kentucky (3)

Running back

• Blake Corum, Michigan (2)
• Jonathon Brooks, Texas (3)
• Marshawn Lloyd, USC (3)
• Ray Davis, Kentucky (2)
• Braelon Allen, Wisconsin (3)
• Will Shipley, Clemson (3)
• Cody Schrader, Missouri (1)
• Dylan Laube, New Hampshire (3)
• Isaiah Davis, South Dakota State (2)
• Dillon Johnson, Washington (2)
• George Holani, Boise State (3)

Wide receiver

• Rome Oduze, Washington (2)
• Brian Thomas, LSU (3)
• Ladd McConkey, Georgia (3)
• AD Mitchell, Texas (3)
• Keon Coleman, Florida State (3)
• Xavier Legette, South Carolina (2)
• Roman Wilson, Michigan (3)
• Ja’Lynn Polk, Washington (2)
• Ricky Pearsall, Florida (2)
• Malachi Corley, Western Kentucky (3)
• Xavier Worthy, Texas (3)
• Malik Washington, Virginia (3)
• Jamari Thrash, Louisville (3)
• Cornelius Johnson, Michigan (3)
• Luke McCaffrey, Rice (2)
• Jacob Cowing, Arizona (3)
• Ainias Smith, Texas A&M (3)
• Tahj Washington, USC (2)
• Ryan Flournoy, Southeast Missouri State (2)
• Isaiah Williams, Illinois (3)
• Jordan Whittington, Texas (2)
• Marcus Rosemary-Jacksaint, Georgia (3)

Tight end

• Brock Bowers, Georgia (2)
• Cade Stover, Ohio State (1)
• Jared Wiley, TCU (3)
• Tip Reiman, Illinois (1)
• AJ Barner, Michigan (3)
• Tanner McLachlan (2)
• Dallin Holker, Colorado State (3)
• Jack Westover, Washington (3)
• Trey Knox, South Carolina (3)

Offensive tackle

• Joe Alt, Notre Dame (3)
• Olumuyiwa Fashanu, Penn State (3)
• JC Latham, Alabama (3)
• Patrick Paul, Houston (3)
• Brandon Coleman, TCU (3)
• Kiran Amegadjie (1)
• Javon Foster, Missouri (3)
• Caden Wallace, Penn State (3)
• Walter Rouse, Oklahoma (3)
• Garret Greenfield, South Dakota (2)
• Frank Crum, Wyoming (3)
• Andrew Coker, TCU (3)
• Doug Nester, West Virginia (3)

Interior offensive line

• Taliese Fuaga, Oregon State (2)
• Troy Fautanu, Washington (3)
• Jackson Powers-Johnson, Oregon (2)
• Graham Barton, Duke (2)
• Zach Frazier, West Virginia (1)
• Cooper Beebe, Kansas State (1)
• Jordan Morgan, Arizona (3)
• Christian Haynes, Connecticut (2)
• Kingsley Suamataia, BYU (3)
• Zack Zinter, Michigan (3)
• Christian Mahogany, Boston College (3)
• Isaiah Adams, Illinois (2)
• Hunter Nourzad, Penn State (3)
• Sedrick Van Pran, Georgia (2)
• Mason McCormick, South Dakota State (2)
• Tanor Bortolini, Wisconsin (2)
• Beaux Limmer, Arkansas (3)
• Jacob Monk, Duke (3)
• KT Leveston, Kansas State (3)
• Trevor Keegan, Michigan (3)
• Kingsley Eguakun, Florida (3)
• Elijah Klein, UTEP (3)
• CJ Hanson, Holy Cross (3)
• Andrew Raym, Oklahoma (3)
• Nick Gargiulo, South Carolina (3)
• Brady Latham, Arkansas (3)
• X’Zauvea Gadlin, Liberty (3)
• Keaton Bills, Utah (3)

Defensive tackle

• Byron Murphy, Texas (3)
• Johnny Newton, Illinois (1)
• Kris Jenkins, Michigan (3)
• Braden Fiske, Florida State (3)
• Mekhi Wingo, LSU (1)
• DeWayne Carter, Duke (1)
• Khristian Boyd, Northern Iowa (2)
• McKinnley Jackson, Texas A&M (3)
• Jordan Jefferson, LSU (3)
• Tyler Davis, Clemson (3)
• Fabien Lovett, Florida State (3)
• Marcus Harris, Auburn (3)
• Justin Eboige, Alabama (3)
• Keith Randolph, Illinois (2)
• Logan Lee, Iowa (3)

Edge rushers

• Dallas Turner, Alabama (3)
• Jared Verse, Florida State (3)
• Laiatu Latu, UCLA (3)
• Darius Robinson, Missouri (3)
• Marshawn Kneeland, Western Michigan (3)
• Adisa Isaac, Penn State (2)
• Chris Braswell, Alabama (3)
• Bralen Trice, Washington (3)
• Jonah Ellis, Utah (3)
• Mohamed Kamara, Colorado State (2)
• Gabriel Murphy, UCLA (3)
• Cedric Johnson, Mississippi (3)
• Nelson Ceaser, Houston (3)
• Braiden McGregor, Michigan (3)
• Eric Watts, Connecticut (3)
• Zion Tupuola-Fetui, Washington (3)
• Javontae Jean-Baptiste, Notre Dame (3)
• Grayson Murphy, UCLA (3)
• Trajan Jeffcoat, Arkansas (3)
• Solomon Byrd, USC (3)

Linebacker

• Junior Colson, Michigan (1)
• Payton Wilson, NC State (2)
• Cedric Grey, North Carolina (3)
• Jeremiah Trotter, Clemson (3)
• Jordan Magee, Temple (3)
• Tommy Eichenberg, Ohio State (1)
• Edefuan, Ulofoshio, Washington (3)
• Ty’ron Hopper, Missouri (3)
• Darius Muasau, UCLA (3)
• Aaron Casey, Indiana (3)
• JD Bertrand, Notre Dame (2)
• Jaylan Ford, Texas (3)
• Tyrice Knight, UTEP (3)
• Easton Gibbs, Wyoming (2)
• Maema Njongmeta, Wisconsin (3)
• Jackson Mitchell, Connecticut (3)

Cornerback

• Terrion Arnold, Alabama (3)
• Quinyon Mitchell, Toledo (3)
• Cooper DeJean, Iowa (1)
• Kool-Aid McKinstry, Alabama (3)
• Ennis Rakestraw, Missouri (2)
• Mike Sainristil, Michigan (1)
• Max Melton, Maryland (3)
• Andru Phillips, Kentucky (2)
• T.J. Tampa, Iowa State (3)
• Kamari Lassiter, Georgia (1)
• Nehemiah Pritchett, Auburn (3)
• Kris Abrams-Draine, Missouri (3)
• Jarvis Brownlee, Louisville (3)
• Cam Hart, Notre Dame (2)
• Jarrian Jones, Florida State (3)
• Josh Newton, TCU (3)
• MJ Devonshire, Pittsburgh (3)
• Myles Harden, South Dakota (3)
• Qwan’tez Stiggers, CFL (3)
• Kalen King, Penn State (3)
• Johnny Dixon, Pen. State (3)
• Marcellas Dial, South Carolina (3)
• Christian Rolland-Wallace, USC (3)
• Josh Wallace, Michigan (3)
• Jarius Monroe, Tulane (3)

Safety

• Javon Bullard, Georgia (3)
• Tyler Nubin, Minnesota (3)
• Cole Bishop, Utah (3)
• Malik Mustapha, Wake Forrest (3)
• Kameron Kitchens, Miami (3)
• Sione Vaki, Utah (1)
• Kitan Oladapo, Oregon State (3)
• Trey Taylor, Air Force (3)
• Tykee Smith, Ohio State (3)
• Beau Brade, Maryland (3)
• Evan Williams, Oregon (3)
• Dajahn Anthony, Mississippi (3)
• Andre Sam, LSU (3)
• Demani Richardson, Texas A&M (3)
• Ben Nikkel, Iowa State (3)