Unfortunate, but factually correct.Nobody is giving Grant cushion. It's a false assumption that teams give a guy cushion because of speed. In actuality they beat him up at the line and prevent him from getting anywhere since he doesn't have NFL size of body control. You don't have to worry about top speed when it's so easy to prevent a guy from getting there. Not only is this why Grant has not been a consistent deep threat in his career, despite his speed, it's why he's also a non-factor on short routes, since you can effectively take away the two in one swoop. And on the off chance he does get by you, he is very hard to spot downfield since he is practically 1/2 the size of the defenders and he lacks any ability to adjust or position himself for a contested catch.
He's fast. He's a kick returner. But we've been trying for three seasons to make him part of our receive rotation and he's just waste space out there. He's not even reliable for gadget plays since those are pretty much telegraphed by his presence.
The kind of teams that have to give a guy like Grant a "cushion", are teams that aren't very good in the secondary.