BEREA, Ohio — The irony isn’t lost on Grant Delpit, as he sits on the bleachers just off the Browns’ practice field after the second day of Organized Team Activities in May.
“It’s crazy,” he says, a laugh catching in his throat. “The two years we went to the playoffs, I missed both. I mean, unlucky, but you can’t do nothing about it.”
In 2020 when the Browns ended their 17-year playoff drought, Delpit was sidelined for the entire year after tearing his Achilles in training camp.
And then in December of last year, during what seemed to be a breakout season, Delpit suffered a groin injury against the Jacksonville Jaguars that required surgery and cost him the final five games — including Cleveland’s wild card loss to the Houston Texans.
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“That sucked,” he said. “That sucked pretty bad.”
Nearly five months removed from the injury, this seems to be about as deep as he’s willing to go when discussing his shortened season and watching from the sidelines as the Browns’ stout defense, the No. 1 defense in the league last year, sprung a leak at the worst time.
But for most of 2023, he was a natural fit for defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz’s system, one that allows him to play all over the field and show off his athleticism. Even with the missed games, he was second on the team with 77 tackles, had 1.5 sacks, one interception and three passes defensed. He was named a Pro Bowl alternate.
But there’s a dichotomy to those contributions in his mind.
In December just before the injury, he offered this about his season: “If you’re not giving up plays, you’re playing great football. And I think that, personally, I’m doing a good job of that.”
But now, he’s not nearly as content, even after signing a $36 million, three-year extension in December.
“I don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Delpit said in May. “I’m never satisfied though. I feel I haven’t done nothing. I feel like I haven’t shown anything, to be honest.
“I had one pick, one sack. I feel like I played trash.”
Two things can be true at once, especially for Delpit — especially given his circumstances.
For most of Delpit’s life, the one undeniable virtue has been patience.
He had it as a 6-year-old, when his family relocated to Houston from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
In college he had it, becoming one of the most-sought-after safeties in the 2020 NFL Draft — only to have his predraft process upended by COVID, unable to workout in person and show he had moved on from the ankle injury that plagued him for most of his final year at LSU.
And there’s no doubt he had it with the Browns a few months later, when that Achilles injury cost him his entire rookie year.
So when the groin injury happened in December, he knew the drill: Do the work. Try and make it back for the playoffs post-surgery. Worry about what you can control.
That patience has helped Delpit get through the most difficult periods of his life, but hearing him reflect on it now, it also seems to be a burden he bears — one that has changed how he views football and life, and one he hopes will push him to the next level.
An unexpected ending
December 10, 2023, was supposed to be a banner day for Delpit.
His contract extension was officially announced. There wasn’t much to feel down about considering his future in Cleveland was now secure, and he was one of the best coverage safeties in the NFL at the time, ranking 18th in that category with a 75.5 grade, according to Pro Football Focus.
Instead of celebrating his new deal, however, Delpit left Cleveland’s 31-27 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars with a non-contact groin injury.
He could walk and get around on his own, but was in obvious pain in the immediate aftermath. Initially, everyone, including Delpit himself, just assumed it was a strain.
An MRI the following day, however, showed a worst-case scenario: Delpit’s left adductor muscle was “snapped in half,” he said. Doctors realized they were going to have to clean up the same muscle in his right leg too.
And with that, Delpit was on his way to Philadelphia to see renowned surgeon Dr. William C. Meyers, who has pioneered core muscle procedures and injury prevention, and who is the go-to guy for a lot of NFL players who experience groin and core muscle injuries.
Initially, there was optimism that Delpit would make it back in time for a playoff run as he returned to rehab at the Browns facility.
But this was undeniably a depressing detour.
“I never really had groin problems,” Delpit said. “It just so happened it was just like my Achilles, a non-contact thing.”
By this point, Delpit had steadily improved in each of the last three seasons, rebounding nicely from the 2020 Achilles injury he referenced, and was having his best year yet in Schwartz’s system. It’s a defense that has allowed him to use his length, athleticism, and instincts to make plays.
But it was just too short of a turnaround for Delpit, especially with the Browns falling in the wild card round.
In retrospect, it seemed like Delpit was never quite as close to making a return against the Texans for that game as everyone hoped.
“Honestly, I was still pretty far away,” Delpit said. “I was going to have to push myself. It was going to hurt pretty bad, but right now I’m fine. I’m getting to that 100 percent.
“Let the people know I was trying.”
Cleveland Browns safety Grant Delpit stretches with the team during minicamp in Berea.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
The storm
You’d expect nothing less from Delpit in the face of an unexpected injury.
This was only the latest instance in which he felt like he was close to accomplishing something big football-wise, only to have everything yanked away at the last possible second.
The first time came in August of 2005.
Delpit was 6 years old, living in New Orleans with his dad Marc, mom Endya, and sister Grace.
He was a typical sports-obsessed kid who was already playing baseball, soccer, and flag football. But even now, Delpit recalls with a smile how excited he was to finally hit the minimum age required to play tackle football in the state of Louisiana.
After a mini-combine going through some basic catching, throwing and kicking drills with the other kids in his age group, Delpit made an impression. One of the coaches called Marc to relay the good news.
“I was going to be the No. 1 pick in the draft,” Delpit said. “And then the storm came.”
About seven days later, Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
In some sense, it was business as usual between his tryout and the storm arriving.
The Delpits, natives of New Orleans, knew the drill: They packed weekend bags and headed to Memphis for what they thought would be a quick trip. That assumption proved incorrect when they were still in Tennessee and learned as more news coverage rolled out that their neighborhood, New Orleans East, was underwater.
“There was a lot of people in New Orleans that Katrina affected worse than me,” Delpit said. “Because we were able to get out. I fortunately didn’t have any deaths in the family, but everybody knows the story. And we were able to get out the day before too, my whole family.”
The storm claimed more than 1,800 lives and ranked as the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.
Unable to return to the home they built, Endya and Marc decided to go to Houston where they had extended family, making the Delpits just several of the estimated 250,000 people that were taken in by the city in the initial aftermath of the storm.
They were also several of the thousands that made Houston their new home in the years following.
“I never saw us living in Houston, but Katrina changed that for us, obviously,” Endya Delpit said.
It was a lot of change for Grant Delpit to digest in a very short amount of time. A new home, a new school, but one that was similar to the all-boys Catholic school he attended in Louisiana.
One of the biggest blows, however, was that in Texas, you had to be 7 to play tackle football. With Delpit’s birthday on September 20, he just missed the cutoff for that season.
“He had to wait a year,” Endya said. “So that, again, patience. He did flag football when we first moved there.”
Waiting that extra year may not have been what her son wanted, but a few short years later, it was like he never missed a beat.
'Who is this?’
In middle school from 2010-2012, Delpit played on a powerhouse youth team, the Fort Bend Express. In those three years, the team never lost a game.
It was on that first team in sixth grade that Delpit met one of his best friends, an already-flashy player whose family also relocated to Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: CeeDee Lamb.
“Man, that was a time,” Delpit recalled with a smile.
Lamb became a star receiver in college at Oklahoma before being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. Last year he earned All-Pro honors and broke Michael Irvin’s franchise record for receptions and receiving yards in a single season.
But before all that, Lamb was one of the stars of that Fort Bend Express team — and it didn’t take him long to realize he was in good company with Delpit.
“We were both in practice and he (Delpit) came late from baseball practice right before,” Lamb told cleveland.com.
“But he made a couple plays on our quarterback, and I’m like, ‘Who is this?’ He was wearing No. 3 at the time, I remember. Obviously, he looked the part. The whole team, we went through the whole season, obviously just deep guys. We were undefeated that year.
“And at the time, obviously we were very talented and very young. Didn’t really know where everybody’s intention or everything else was headed, but I knew that he was a great football player.”
While they went to different high schools — Lamb attended Foster High School in Richmond, Texas, and Delpit attended St. Thomas High and Lamar High in Houston before transferring to national powerhouse IMG Academy in Florida for his senior season — the two remained close.
Both Lamb and Delpit were introverted, and had an overlapping friend group. Even after those Fort Bend Express days, they would still see each other at seven-on-sevens, as college offers piled up.
“I knew we could both make it — it was when we were in high school, when we got to high school and we were still close, and we were still doing the thing,” Lamb said. “But for Grant, he started flying around, catching picks, hitting guys, and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s like that.’”
Cleveland Browns safety Grant Delpit (22) during workouts, July 30, 2020, in Berea.Matt Starkey, Cleveland Browns
Missed rookie opportunities
Delpit went on to star at LSU, becoming a full-time starter as a sophomore in 2018. Around that same time, his parents and sister also moved back to New Orleans, finally returning to the city they left over a decade before.
Back home, Delpit thrived.
In 2019 as the Tigers won a national title, he won the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s top defensive back. That accolade came despite playing through an ankle injury for most of the year.
At the 2020 NFL combine, he didn’t participate in drills as the injury lingered, opting instead to wait for LSU’s pro day.
But again, Delpit found his football plans changing. That day never came with in-person visits and pro days canceled across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Delpit never built up enough momentum to climb into the first round, and instead was available for the Browns to scoop up at pick No. 44.
Despite the uncertainty the pandemic caused, it went on to be a banner year for Cleveland as the Browns broke that playoff drought and made it to the divisional round.
Delpit, however, missed it all.
During a training camp practice, he suffered that non-contact Achilles injury, one that Endya heard on the radio as broadcasters narrated her son being carted off the practice field.
“I tried texting him and called and I couldn’t reach him,” Endya said. “And Grant will tell you that I was on the plane before he could text me back.”
Players nowadays can overcome Achilles injuries in 6-8 months. But the recoveries can be longer — and worst-case scenario, it’s an injury that can be career-ending.
The significance of essentially redshirting his very first year in the NFL wasn’t — and isn’t — lost on Delpit nearly four years later.
“Your rookie year is when you put yourself on the map,” he said. “The league gets ahold of you and doesn’t let you go if you do well your rookie year.
“I kind of disappeared.”
He may have gotten a late start, but he kept a positive attitude.
Delpit fought his way back in 2021, even being named the team’s 2021 Ed Block Courage Award winner. The honor is given annually to a member of each of the 32 NFL teams who best exemplifies the qualities of Ed Block — the former head athletic trainer of the Baltimore Colts — based on courage, compassion, commitment and community.
But even though he came back and has steadily improved in each of the past three seasons, the Achilles injury was a trial that altered his NFL trajectory.
“As far as mentally, it gives you an aspect of this game can be taken away from you at any moment,” Delpit said. “And you see that all the time, but we never think about it. It could be gone today, it could be gone tomorrow, knock on wood.”
Grant Delpit poses with LSU's championship trophy from 2019 as well as the Jim Thorpe Award he won that season (left), after going back for graduation in winter of 2023 after he completed his bachelor's degree.LSU Football
‘Start what you finish’
Delpit’s words about the game being taken away at any moment turned out to be eerily prophetic. That quote came from an interview four days before last year’s season-ending groin injury.
But watching how Delpit handled this injury, and all the setbacks before it, shows that those aren’t just words for him. Everything being fragile and finite — Delpit has lived that in a visceral way, on the field and off.
So knowing that, he’s trying to make the most of every opportunity he’s been given.
Off the field, one example of that came last year, when he earned his sports administration degree from LSU nearly four years after leaving school early for the NFL.
He credits Endya, an attorney and academic, for staying on him about his grades for most of his life — he did a good job with that, other than getting tripped up by an economics class at one point, he jokes.
“Start what you finish,” Delpit said. “I was so close. I actually took my schoolwork seriously. Not as serious as I could. It’s not like I had a 4.0, but I wanted to make my mom proud.”
It’s a mentality you see on the field too with Delpit’s aggression and versatility that allows him to play deep in coverage or down near the line of scrimmage on runs.
Lamb considers himself lucky that he got in on the ground floor when it comes to being a fan of his friend.
“His range is with the best of them, and obviously he’s the type of safety that would come down and still make a play on you,” Lamb said. “I love his game, always have, always been a fan since I was younger when I got to see it up close and personal.”
It remains true in Delpit’s mind, however, that so far, nothing he’s done has been good enough, even as he keeps climbing.
Cleveland Browns safety Grant Delpit catches a pass in coverage drills during minicamp in Berea.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
Something more than patience
As far as what Delpit is chasing individually, for the most part he’s staying coy.
“I keep my goals to myself really, but I mean, you could pretty much imagine (what they are),” he said.
There’s the usual prizes most players chase: Super Bowls. Individual accolades like Pro Bowls and All-Pro recognition. League-leading stats.
But in December, just before getting hurt, Delpit was willing to go a little deeper when it comes to his mindset.
“If you’re not stepping on the field thinking you’re the best on the field, you don’t have the right mindset,” Delpit said. “If you don’t have the mentality that you want to be one of the best ever when you’re done with the game, I just don’t think you’ve got the right mindset.
“It’s not just for this game. This is to solidify your name and solidify the teams that you’ve been on. You don’t want to be associated with losing teams. You want to be associated with greatness. So that’s what I want to do.”
Maybe that’s really the best insight into why Delpit has embraced patience the way he has.
Still early in his career, he’s after greatness — something that is impossible to achieve overnight.
For Endya now, it’s easy to draw the parallel between two very different situations for her son — Delpit missing out on his rookie year in the NFL, and having his life totally changed as a 6-year-old in the aftermath of the storm.
“Having to relocate your life as a 6-year-old, and then having to deal with that injury as a rookie,” she continued. “I think resilience is just the word that comes to mind for me with respect to Grant.”
Delpit has had to be patient and flexible, adjusting and re-adjusting his football goals throughout his life when unexpected setbacks are thrown at him.
But mother knows best — it’s something more than patience that’s driven Delpit all these years. There’s a stubbornness to Delpit and his goals, the kind you can only have through years of practicing resilience. It’s part of his drive, what keeps him grinding even when everything around him is seemingly telling him to give up.
It’s a part of his story, too.
“Everybody has their own story,” Delpit said. “I got a lot of goals for myself that I feel like I haven’t hit yet.
“They’re on the way, though.”
Delpit will wait — and work — however long it takes.
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