We examine the relationship between local gradients in orientation, which are quantified with the Kernel Average Misorientation, and the grain boundary network in an interstitial-free steel sheet, before and after 12% tensile strain. A portion of the unstrained microstructure is used as input to a full-field spectral viscoplastic code that simulates the same deformation. The orientation gradients are concentrated near grain boundaries in both experiments and simulation. Mapping out stress gradients in the simulation suggests that the development of orientation gradients is strongly correlated with such gradients.