Monday was a whirlwind day for former Clemson standout Grady Jarrett.

Jarrett was released by the Atlanta Falcons, his hometown team and the organization he had been with for all 10 of his NFL seasons after being selected in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft.

But it didn’t take long at all for Jarrett to find a new NFL home. Just hours after the Falcons let him go, the Pro Bowl defensive tackle agreed to a three-year, $43.5 million deal with the Chicago Bears, including $28.5 million fully guaranteed.

Jarrett met with Chicago media for the first time after his contract became official Wednesday and recounted what the emotional day was like, leaving the place he had been his entire career before quickly landing with the Bears.

“That time was like, your head’s spinning, you know what I’m saying,” Jarrett said. “Because you’ve got to battle a lot of emotions and things like that, but you also don’t want to make emotional decisions and emotional reactions because you can feel a lot of things when you don’t expect something to happen… I trust in my work, my faith, my resume, the things that’s carried me through my career – hard work, dedication, respecting the game, playing it the right way – and it came true when I got the opportunity to come here.

“A lot of times – I never had been a free agent before – but a lot of times, people think [when] you become a free agent, the whole world’s going to come after you. Everybody wants to be a free agent, but sometimes that ain’t the case. But all it takes is one team to really love you, love what you’re about, and I was fortunate enough to fall in this situation. The love was mutual, and being able to just start here, and have a fresh start, is something I’m super, super excited about.”

A longtime face and leader of the Falcons franchise, Jarrett has amassed 496 tackles, 77 tackles for loss and 36.5 sacks over 152 games (137 starts) in his NFL career to date. The two-time Pro Bowler helped the Falcons to a Super Bowl appearance in the 2016 season, and he was Atlanta’s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in both 2019 and 2024.

Jarrett was born and raised in Atlanta, and the city and Falcons organization will remain near and dear to his heart, but he is thrilled and filled with pride to be in Chicago for the new journey in his life and career.

“Being in one place for 10 years is definitely something special,” he said. “Atlanta was my hometown, is my hometown, with or without the Falcons. Atlanta will always have a special place in my heart, and I’ll have a special place in the people there that supported me.

“But in this new chapter of my life, I’m so happy to be here in a great city like Chicago, an organization who has a history of being a dominant defense, legendary players, Hall of Famers. To be able to walk in the building that’s associated with Walter Payton. I’ve been a two-time Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nominee, have met his family a couple times. So the pride that I have in this place, I didn’t even know it really lived in me until I walked into the building. So, I’m just so fired up.”

The 31-year-old feels he’s “in a special place in a special time in a special moment where I’m supposed to be.”

“I think the perfect match came along,” he said. “When I had the opportunity to join this team, join [head coach] Ben [Johnson and] be a part of something here that is going to be special, me being somebody who wants to be in a position to compete for championships, encourage the younger guys around me, and just really share my experience and my hunger for greatness to others who want to achieve it.”

Jarrett knows the NFL is a business and days like the one he experienced Monday come with the territory of being a player in the league. But he believes the best is yet to come for him as he closes the book on his long tenure with the Falcons and begins his next chapter in Chicago.

“It definitely was a whirlwind, but you know what, it comes with the game,” he said. “If you play as long as I have and you want to keep playing, that time is inevitable almost. But my best days are still ahead of me. I just kind of took it how it came, and through faith, just trusting that something would come along.”

Before entering the NFL, Jarrett was a lightly regarded recruit who grew into Clemson’s top interior defensive lineman as well as one of the team’s best leaders and strongest players in 2014, when he was a first-team All-ACC selection. He recorded 207 tackles, 29.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks over 48 games in his career as a Tiger from 2011-14.

You can check out Jarrett’s full introductory press conference below:

–Photo courtesy of Brett Davis-Imagn Images