Jets clearing salary cap space to acquire Packers Aaron Rodgers?
By Paul Bretl
The New York Jets are clearing cap space, presumably creating room to acquire Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers via trade.
While Rodgers has a cap hit with the Packers of over $30 million in 2023, his cap hit for the acquiring team if traded is only $15.79 million. However, the Jets began the week without enough room.
A few days ago, the Jets were still $1.78 million over the salary cap, according to Over the Cap. Since then, they’ve restructured CJ Uzomah’s contract, which created $3.6 million in cap space. New York also released Braxton Berrios, clearing an additional $5 million in cap space, along with restructuring the deals of Laken Tomlinson, DJ Reed, and Tyler Conklin, freeing up another $15.2 million.
The Jets have also acquired safety Chuck Clark via trade from the Baltimore Ravens in recent days, which adds $2.4 million to their 2023 salary cap. Doing some rough math, the Jets have just south of $20 million in cap space, enough to trade for Rodgers.
Although fitting Rodgers’ cap hit on the books has been relatively easy for New York, as ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported, the potential hold-up in this deal is the nearly $60 million in guaranteed money that Rodgers is owed. Understandably so, the Jets want the Packers to pick up a portion of those dollars – how much is unknown – given that New York will also be giving up draft capital and likely aren’t ecstatic about paying $60 million for potentially just one year with Rodgers.
Green Bay, however, is resistant. While picking up some of that tab could lead to a greater return from the Jets, Rodgers will already leave behind a dead cap hit with the Packers of $40.3 million, and that increases dollar for dollar if they agree to pay some of that salary.
It’s also been reported from outlets that Rodgers is still unsure of what he wants to do—whether that be play or retire.
Following David Bakhtiari’s contract restructure, the Packers have about $24 million in cap space, but that’ll decrease by roughly $9 million following the trade and potentially further if any of that $59.5 million guarantee is paid. Green Bay still needs available cap space for free agency – both new additions and re-signing their own – along with signing their draft class, practice squad, and space for in-season additions.
A trade at this point feels inevitable and will, in all likelihood, take place before free agency begins on March 15th, but there are still details to be ironed out. All teams must be salary cap compliant by this date as well.