The New York Jets still have a problem to sort out in regards to Aaron Rodgers ’ contract.
After a trade with the Green Bay Packers, the Jets have Rodgers as their new star quarterback for the coming season. The Jets gave up several draft picks, including a conditional second round pick that will turn into a first round pick if Rodgers takes part in 65 percent of offensive snaps in the 2023 season.
The trade was agreed just days before April’s NFL draft, with it being reported at the time that the Jets will be picking up Rodgers’ guaranteed option bonus of $58.3 million. This was due to Rodgers, before being traded to the Jets, pushing the option ahead a year to 2024.
Due to salary cap reasons, the Jets converted the $58.3m option into a signing bonus, which created $43.7m of cap space. Jets general manager Joe Douglas admitted last month that some of the finer details of a contract for Rodgers still needed to be completed.
“We knew at the end of the trade that Aaron and Green Bay needed to work some things out,” told ProFootballTalk in May. “We didn’t know the exact ramifications.
“It was just important to us that the cap number wasn’t going to go higher than it was at the time that we agreed to it.
“We didn’t know that it was actually going to go down to the minimum, so when they re-did the deal, you know, we saw the new number, knew that we saw that it was low for this year.
“We’re still working on restructuring aspects of the deal as we speak, but we feel like we’re in a really good place.”
The Jets have been working on restructuring contracts of players during the off-season. According to ESPN , the AFC East team has the fourth-most cap space in the NFL with $24.5m.
However, it's been stated that a large portion of that is likely to be taken up by Rodgers’ contract, which is expected to be restructured over the next few weeks. The QB is said to be expecting around $107.5m over the next two years guaranteed, but a lot will depend on how his deal with the Jets is structured and if he is willing to accept less in order to get a deal over the line.
With an agreement yet to be reached, the Jets still have a headache to work out how to proceed and a resolution will need to be found.
Rodgers is 39 years old, and will turn 40 during his first season with the Jets, and entering the final years of his time as an NFL quarterback. How long he plans to continue playing for remains to be seen, but a lot will be indicated by how the Jets restructure his contract.
