Report: New Orleans Saints lock up JT Gray with 3-year, $9.6 million deal

Former Mississippi State star J.T. Gray has made his decision in NFL free agency. The special teams star is staying in New Orleans and has signed a three-year deal to remain with the Saints. NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported that news and Gray’s contract details Friday morning in this tweet:

“Source: The #Saints are giving star special teamer JT Gray a 3-year deal worth $9.6M with $2.4M to sign… including an addition $500K per year in playtime. Max is $11.1M.”

Gray has spent his entire career with the New Orleans Saints and has played a key role on special teams. Still, on defense in 2022, he had 17 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 14 games. Those numbers come after he earned first team All-Pro honors in 2021 en route to a Pro Bowl appearance.

The Saints signed Gray as an undrafted free agent in 2018 out of Mississippi State, where he had 209 tackles, 14.5 tackles and 4.0 sacks over four years.

More on the 2023 NFL offseason, free agency

The NFL 2023 calendar year is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET on March 15 when contracts running through 2022 will officially run out, making those players free agents. Prior to the beginning of free agency, teams will have a chance to designate one franchise or transition tag player, starting on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. ET and ending on March 7. Beginning March 13 through March 15 teams will be allowed a legal negotiation with players who are set to become unrestricted free agents.

In addition to NFL free agency, the new year also marks the beginning of all trades being made official by the league office. April 21 marks the deadline to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets while April 26 marks the deadline for teams to match restricted free agent offers sheets. 722 players are slated to become free agents in 2023.

More on restricted, exclusive rights free agents

Players with only three years of accredited NFL experience become restricted free agents. Their original team will have the option to apply first-round, second-round, original-round, and right-of-fight-of-first-refusal tenders on players at escalating price tags. The higher the round, the more expensive the tender amount; however, if a separate team does offer a contract and the original team does not match that round pick will be conveyed from the new team to the original team. Right of first refusal only gives a team the option to match or not. If they don’t match, they get nothing in return. An original-round tender would send a draft pick from whatever round the player was drafted back to the original team if they chose not to match. The original team will have five days to match once a player signs an offer sheet from a new team.