Grant
Calcaterra.
Grant
Calcaterra.
SMU· 6'4"· 241 lb· 4.62s 40
Calcaterra is 6-foot-4 and 241 pounds with 10-inch hands, and he plays like the big slot receiver he basically was at Oklahoma. He ran 4.62 with a 4.30 shuttle and a 7.09 three-cone, numbers that let him separate on option routes and seams against linebackers who cannot flip their hips with him.
He tracks the deep ball naturally, adjusts to throws outside his frame and made a living on play-action crossers in both college offenses. The blocking is the caveat. At 241 pounds he is not moving a defensive end off the edge, and teams that want their tight end attached on early downs will find him a liability. He competes, and his hand placement improved at SMU, but his value comes from what he does after the snap in the passing game.
A play-action offense that flexes him into the slot and uses him on seams and crossers instead of asking him to block a five-technique.
Year 1: TE2 in twelve personnel and situational receiver. Ceiling: 50-catch starting move tight end.
A heavy run offense that keeps its tight end attached to the tackle and asks him to win down blocks on early downs.
His body of work is a receiver's; the blocking will always be the negotiation.
Grant Calcaterra SMU Highlights
His comeback season at SMU after two years away from football.
Grant Calcaterra Career Highlights
A career reel spanning Oklahoma, SMU and Philadelphia.
Grant Calcaterra makes One-Handed Snag on 3rd Down
The 34-yard one-handed catch against Dallas in Week 16 of 2024.
Calcaterra was born in Cincinnati, grew up in Southern California and caught 57 passes for 958 yards at Santa Margarita Catholic as a senior before committing to Oklahoma and playing in the Under Armour All-America Game.
He was a weapon in Lincoln Riley's offense almost immediately, catching ten passes for 162 yards and three scores as a freshman and 26 for 396 and six touchdowns as a sophomore in 2018, when he made first-team All-Big 12. Then the concussions caught up. He played three games in 2019, and in November of that year, at 20 years old, he announced he was retiring from football.
The comeback took two years. He sat out 2020, said in November he would transfer to Auburn, changed his mind in January, and landed at SMU instead, reuniting with quarterback Tanner Mordecai. In 2021 he caught 38 passes for 465 yards and four touchdowns in eleven games and made second-team All-AAC. He left college with 79 catches for 1,102 yards and thirteen touchdowns across 31 games, and went to the combine as a player whose medical file was going to decide where he was drafted. Philadelphia took him 198th overall.
- 01
Route running
he sells stems and breaks like a slot receiver, which is how a 241-pound tight end separates from NFL linebackers.
- 02
Agility for the position
a 4.30 shuttle and 7.09 three-cone are receiver times on a frame with 33 1/4-inch arms.
- 03
Hands and ball tracking
10-inch hands, a 13.9 career yards-per-catch average and a habit of adjusting to throws away from his body.
- 04
Red-zone production
thirteen touchdowns on 79 college catches, including six in his All-Big 12 sophomore season.
- 05
Resilience
he retired from the sport at twenty over concussions and rebuilt his career from scratch two years later at SMU.
- 01
In-line blocking
at 241 pounds he cannot hold up against NFL edge setters, which limits how often a coach can leave him attached on early downs.
- 02
Medical history
multiple documented concussions and a formal retirement are the reason a first-round talent was still available at 198.
- 03
Play strength at the catch point
he loses contested balls against safeties who can get a hand in and jar him.
- 04
Limited body of work
only 31 games across five calendar years, with a single season of more than 26 receptions to project from.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.62sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 20repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Oklahoma | 5 | 10 | 162 | 3 |
| 2018 | Oklahoma | 12 | 26 | 396 | 6 |
| 2019 | Oklahoma | 3 | 5 | 79 | 0 |
| 2021 | SMU | 11 | 38 | 465 | 4 |
| Career | — | 31 | 79 | 1102 | 13 |
Season and career lines come from his Sports-Reference college page. The four seasons sum exactly to the published career totals of 31 games, 79 receptions, 1,102 yards and thirteen touchdowns. The games-played column counts games in which he recorded receiving statistics, which is why 2017 reads five rather than the fourteen appearances reported by Oklahoma. There is no 2020 row: he had retired from football that year and did not play. The zero in 2019 receiving touchdowns is verified.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Mid-round tight end who develops into a reliable 40-to-60 catch starter without ever being a star.
Athletic receiving tight end who becomes the focal point of a passing game in the middle of the field.
Receiving-only tight end whose blocking limits keep him as a third option and roster filler.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Eagles got what they drafted. Calcaterra debuted in Week 3 of 2022 and caught a 40-yard pass from Jalen Hurts for his first NFL reception, finishing the year with five catches for 81 yards in fifteen games behind Dallas Goedert. He added four catches in 2023, quietly learning the offense.
Then came 2024: seventeen games, thirteen starts, 24 receptions for 298 yards and his first career touchdown against Carolina, plus a one-handed 34-yard grab against Dallas in Week 16 that made the highlight shows. He finished the year with a Super Bowl ring after Philadelphia beat Kansas City 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX. A smaller role in 2025 brought nine catches and another score, and the Eagles re-signed him in March 2026 before a knee issue put him on injured reserve at the end of August. Forty-two receptions and a starting job on a championship team is a strong return on pick 198 — and a remarkable one for a player who had already quit the sport.