When can the Jets move on from Aaron Rodgers’ contract?

When can Jets move on from Aaron Rodgers’ contract?

The New York Jets are suffering through another abysmal season, but this time it was supposed to be different. This time the Jets had former league MVP Aaron Rodgers, but it’s still been terrible. Offensive coordinator Nate Hackett was demoted, then head coach Robert Saleh was fired, but the Jets are still 3-7 and two games out of the final Wild Card spot.

Rodgers has gone 33 consecutive starts without throwing for 300 yards dating back to his time in Green Bay with the Packers. It’s the second-longest streak in the past 20 seasons.

Beyond 2024, what’s the plan for the Jets and their QB who turns 41 on December 2nd, 2024? His contract is a bit rocky, but certainly able to be handled to get him out of New Jersey.

Rodgers only has a salary of $3.16 million but he has a big roster bonus of $35 million. His total cash is ranked No. 9 among NFL quarterbacks. None of that salary is guaranteed, and that bonus isn’t even required to be paid until the 2025 regular season starts. Essentially, the Jets can wait until free agency and the NFL Draft are over to make their decision as long as Rodgers is cool with that and doesn’t retire.

The biggest hurdle with Rodgers isn’t paying the cash — they’d gladly pay him if he was playing well — it’s his salary cap hit. If Rodgers is on the roster, his 2024 cap hit is only $23.5 million as they’ve pushed out a bunch of those hits into the future in order to surround Rodgers with talent now. If he is cut, his dead cap hit is $49 million, meaning his cap hit is much higher if he’s off the team rather than on it. New York currently has enough cap space to make that work, but only 44 players under contract in 2025.

If the Jets move on from Rodgers, they would presumably do so as a post-June 1 release, meaning his cap hit stays at that $23.5 million cap number until June 1. (The same effect would happen if his retirement paperwork isn’t filed until after June 1.) Then on that date, they could split the $49 million dead cap hit over two seasons with $14 million coming in 2025 and $35 million hitting in 2026.

Right now, Rodgers doesn’t have any years beyond 2025 on his contract but his cap hit will linger. If he plays for the Jets in 2025, his dead cap hit in 2026 will be $35 million. They could conceivably push that over two years with the post-June 1 shenanigans.

Either way, Rodgers hasn’t been playing up to the level of his contract and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they moved on from him. Receiver Davante Adams is due an insane $35.64 million salary in 2025 and the Jets traded a third-round pick for him, so they understandably want him to play but not at that number.

With a new coach and an aging roster in key spots, New York could be in rebuild mode all over again.