Gunner Stockton faced a big decision this offseason. He could've entered the NFL Draft or the Transfer Portal, but he chose to sty put at Georgia. In fact, news came out on Monday that Stockton signed a new NIL deal with Georgia for the 2026 season that was much less than he could've made elsewhere.
So why did he do that? What led him to choose to take a pay cut to stay at Georgia?
The answer to that question may sound crazy to some, but no Georgia fan will be surprised to find out what led to this decision.
“He (Stockton) wanted UGA to have the budget to retain and acquire the talent for the roster needed to compete for another championship,” his rep, Faryn Healy of ESM, shared via On3.com. “Gunner doesn’t play football at UGA for money. Leading that team is his lifelong dream.”
Gunner Stockton made a huge sacrifice to help Georgia get better
Stockton only had one reason that led him to take less money at Georgia. He wanted UGA to have as much NIL money as possible to use on the rest of their roster to make it as strong as possible.
Georgia was extremely close to doing something special the last two seasons. The Bulldogs won the SEC two years in a row, but they eventually fell short in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. So instead of running to the hills and taking his career elsewhere, Stockton decided to reaffirm his commitment to Georgia. And in doing so he gave Kirby Smart and his staff a lot more NIL money to work with to make the rest of the team around him much better.
The hope now is that this will lead to another great season and an even deeper run in the CFP. Stockton is good enough and what he did made the rest of the team around him good enough, so now it's just a matter of putting it all together for the entire season this fall.