UNLV To Purdue Flip Profile: Jon Grimmett

The tight end out of Oklahoma will be following Coach Odom to West Lafayette, Indiana.

With the hiring of Barry Odom comes the addition of high school prospects who were committed to UNLV, Odom’s last stop. Today’s feature is three star tight end Jon Grimmett of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, who had been committed to UNLV since June.

Grimmett now has his own page on Purdue’s athletics website, where he’s listed at 6’4” and 220 pounds. Note that in the highlights, he lists himself as an NFL-specific 6’4.75” and 229 pounds. I like that. I don’t know which is more accurate, but I like that.

Grimmett will fill a hole left by multiple departing tight ends so I can see him getting some reps in as a freshman. Not shocked if he’s redshirted. But remember that any player can participate in four games that don’t count toward a redshirt, so one way or another he’ll see the field in 2025, likely late in games unless he proves to be a big surprise, which I’ll get to later.

What he brings to Purdue:

Grimmett also played basketball and ran track, and you can tell. His quarterback threw a lot of “get up and grab it” lobs in the tight end’s direction, and oh boy did he usually get up and grab that football. Rebounding technique, almost. Great hands and strength, I don’t see too many people stripping him of the ball in the future.

Now for the track aspect, you can see his top-end speed is killer, and once he hits his stride he can turn short catches into short catches with big runs after the catch and after contact. He had previously competed in the 400m championship in Oklahoma. He’s fast. His record 40 yard dash is timed at 4.68 seconds, and if that’s accurate, that’s a good bit faster than the average NFL combine participant’s ~4.74 seconds.

If you watch the whole highlight video, you’ll notice Grimmett included a lot of what he can do in run blocking, which I love to see from a tight end recruit. “Hey, I can hit and move people, too!” And, yeah, he can lay some people out. Very effective blocker and another testament to his strength.

Projection:

Back to the redshirting thing: I won’t be shocked if he’s redshirted with his appearances in his four allotted games primarily as a run blocker, a situation in which he may be targeted a time or two across four games. Or, he could be too talented to keep off the field. We’ll know more after spring and summer practice obviously, but I think he can have impact as a freshman.

Down the line, however, this is your prototypical tight end build and strength, I don’t see why Jon Grimmett can’t be a big offensive weapon as soon as 2026. I mean, look at some of those fingertip catches…even his fingers have the strength to catch footballs before properly hauling them in and tucking them away. Strength like his and the track speed is a killer combo for a tight end, and he certainly won’t be a tight end known primarily for blocking ability by the end of his college career.

I see him as a future starter. I’ll go ahead and say it. Sure, he was just a man among boys in a smaller division of Oklahoma high school football, and I think that’s what has a lot to do with his ranking of an 86.0 as per 247 Sports, but based upon what I’ve seen, he could easily be doing similar things in a larger division and should have been a four star in my opinion.

But that’s over now. Rankings and ratings mean nothing anymore. He’s a Boilermaker. Go out there and prove me right, Grimmett! We’ll mark him as a potential surprise freshman contributor.