Note: The following appears in the Georgia Tech football digital gameday guide, available HERE.
The Brian Dawkins Lifetime Achievement Award is presented each year to a former Clemson football player who has consistently demonstrated the qualities of leadership, community service and other high qualities that are consistent with excellence since graduation.
The award is named after Brian Dawkins, the Clemson All-America safety who had nine Pro Bowl seasons with the Eagles and Broncos over 16 years. He was the first former Tiger to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This year’s recipient is former All-America defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who followed a similar path to stardom as Dawkins. Jarrett will be honored at this weekend’s game.
Jarrett and Dawkins were considered three-star defensive prospects coming out of high school and played reserve roles as freshmen at Clemson. However, both relied on an unquenchable thirst to improve over their Tiger careers to become All-Americans as seniors, then become NFL Pro Bowlers.
“This honor means so much to me because my legacy is now attached to someone as great as Brian Dawkins,” said Jarrett. “Brian set the tone as a Clemson great and as a Pro Football Hall of Famer in every aspect, whether it be on the field, off the field or as a team leader.”
Jarrett was a mainstay on the defensive line for Clemson during the first half of the 2010s. He was a First-Team All-ACC selection in 2013 and 2014 and a third-team All-American as a senior. During the 2014 season, he was a big reason Clemson led the nation in total defense for just the second time. It was one of nine statistical categories that saw Clemson finish No. 1 in the nation.
The Tigers won the ACC championship his freshman year (2011) and won bowl games over LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma his last three years, respectively, to finish in the top 15 of the AP poll each season.
He finished his Clemson career with 207 tackles, 29.5 tackles for loss and four recovered fumbles. That production helped him become a fifth-round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons during the spring of 2015.
Just as he did at Clemson, Jarrett proved the doubters wrong in the NFL. He played 10 seasons with the Falcons and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2019 and 2020. His most memorable game took place in the Falcons’ Super Bowl appearance at the end of the 2016 season against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Jarrett sacked Brady three times in the game, still tied for the second-most sacks by a player in a Super Bowl.
He still is an NFL starter, now with the Chicago Bears. He helped the Bears to the playoffs in 2025. Over 12 seasons, he has played in 175 games, including 150 as a starter, and has 551 career tackles, including 286 solo stops. He has 79 tackles for loss and 38.5 sacks in his career as well.
Dawkins was known as a leader at Clemson and in the NFL. Jarrett has followed that path, first as a Clemson team co-captain as a senior in 2014, then as a multi-year captain with the Falcons. That example of leadership reached a new level in 2025, when he was named one of the Bears’ captains in his first year with the franchise, an example of Jarrett’s level of respect across the league.
Community service is also a consideration when it comes to the Brian Dawkins Lifetime Achievement Award. Jarrett has a long resumé when it comes to his community service involvement during his NFL career. In 2018 and 2024, he was named the Atlanta Falcons’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
He was nominated for his work in the Atlanta community through his Grady Gives Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization that advocates for and promotes awareness for causes such as anti-bullying, literacy awareness and empowering youth and young adults to find their purpose in life.
The Grady Gives Foundation supports and/or provides funding to a host of causes. In the past, these have included The Rally Foundation, which helps children with cancer, Restoration Atlanta, which helps women and children transition out of homelessness, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which helps families impacted by fire and other tragedies.
“I am so proud of what Grady Jarrett has accomplished over his career at Clemson and in the NFL,” said Head Coach Dabo Swinney. “He continues to be one of the best representatives of our program, and I am sure that will be the case for many years to come.”