Manchester’s Ashton Grant had to face what the vast majority of players face after college. He had been in training camp with the Chiefs, the Bears, and played a year in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football, and now it was over.
“I went back to Assumption and finished out my degree,” Grant said. “At first, I was upset that I didn’t make it playing. I didn’t want anything to do with the sport for a little bit. I was thinking, I had a semester to figure out what I want to do, and I was debating becoming an admissions counselor at Assumption. It was like, ‘If I’m not going to be playing and I’m upset with the game of football, I guess I’m just going to have to read college essays for the next 40 or 50 years.’
“… But then, I’d been playing football since I was six, it was the only thing I’d ever known. … And I just got the itch to be around a team again and be involved any way I could. Coach (Bob) Chesney had moved on from Assumption to Holy Cross and I asked if I could join his staff.”
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For Grant, that was the fork in the road, it led him back to football, starting as a special teams quality control assistant at Holy Cross in 2019. And the road he chose has turned out to be a lightning-fast track.
Six years later, Grant, 30, is the quarterbacks coach with the Patriots. Mike Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels brought him in to work with Drake Maye, franchise quarterback, third pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, beginning his second pro season. The results have been spectacular. Maye, 23, completed 72 percent of his passes for 4,391 yards and 31 touchdowns, eight interceptions, MVP-caliber numbers as the Pats turned it around from 4-13 to 14-3. Maye won his playoff debut last week, beating the Chargers 16-3, with the Texans next up in the divisional round Sunday at Foxborough.
“(Working with Maye) is a responsibility I don’t take lightly,” Grant said. “I try to make (Vrabel and McDaniels) proud of that, and prove them right, that they made the right decision.”
Grant interprets the things Vrabel and McDaniels want to get across, “adding my own little spin to it.” he says. The rest of it has been on QB1.
“One (unique) thing would be Drake’s competitiveness and the second thing would be his mental acumen,” Grant said. “I don’t think I’ve been around a player his age who takes what we tell him in the meeting room and applies it on the field as quickly as he can, or corrects a mistake as quickly as he can. If you show him something one time, he puts it in this memory bank of his and he’s able to withdraw it when he needs it. If you fool him once, I don’t think you’ll be able to fool him twice.”
Grant’s mother still lives in Manchester, and growing up in that community remains part of what he has become as a coach.
“I just think of some those Friday nights at MHS and before that, playing football at Mount Nebo, swimming in Globe Hollow and all those places back home,” Grant said, “and I think the lessons I learned and the relationships I built in those places stick with me today. I think about that when I’m making relationships with players. You never know exactly what is going to stick with a player, and they may not know either, but they’re going to remember how you made them feel. I remember how those places made me feel when I was younger.”
At Manchester High, coaches Mike Masse and Melvin Coleman, now coaching at Morgan State, were major influences on Grant. After a year at prep school, Grant went on to set school records for receiving yards and touchdowns at Assumption.
“Ashton was a role player for us and he played all his roles admirably,” said Marco Pizzoferrato. Manchester’s head coach at that time. “He was a hard-working kid, a kid who was dedicated to getting better and persevered to do anything he can to put himself in a position to be successful. He was a kid who really made himself into what he became.”
Manchester’s Ashton Grant is the Patriots quarterbacks coach, playing a role as Drake Maye has come of age. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
After one year coaching with Chesney at Holy Cross, where he fell in love with X’s and O’s, Grant joined the Browns in 2020. participating in the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowship program. Within two years, Grant was a full assistant on Kevin Stefanski’s staff, in offensive quality control. A receiver as a player, Grant was moved around to work with tight ends, receivers, running backs and quarterbacks, encouraged to learn all of it. In 2023, he became the Browns’ quarterbacks coach/offensive assistant. Vrabel, former head coach of the Titans, had joined the Browns organization in ’24.
“His role with the Browns, one of his many responsibilities was to help the younger coaches on the staff and develop and teach,” Grant said. “In the offseason, before the 2024 season, we would sit and talk about different schemes and interview tactics, and our relationship kind of grew from there.”
Now, Grant has had an important function and a vantage point as Vrabel, long-time linebacker during the Belichick-Brady glory years, has restored the Patriots in one season.
“The first word that comes to mind is intentionality,” Grant said. “He was very intentional from his introductory press conference and things he set out that he wanted to accomplish, and then watching him build it step by step with the coaching staff, the players, everything was tied back to his original messaging and still continues to be.
“Being intentional in what you’re doing and genuine in all your relationships, and he does a good job into reaching his hand into every position room, every department within the building.”
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In following Vrabel back to New England, Grant, with his wife and two children, are close enough to stay connected to family in Connecticut. However, to be in this coaching position at such a young age, associated with a quarterback coming of age and a championship contender, Grant’s NFL future is lush with potential and wide open for opportunity.
“The first thing is being where my feet are and trying to give this organization and quarterback my undivided attention in trying to get this thing done,” Grant said. “One day down the road I would love to get the opportunity to be an offensive coordinator and a head coach. That just comes with dominating the role that you have now. I don’t look too far ahead, I just stay in the moment, put my head down and try to dominate each and every day and then what’s supposed to happen will happen.”