The New York Jets went all in during the past two seasons with Aaron Rodgers and ended up with nothing to show for it. The end result, as Rodgers predicted back in August, saw everyone in the regime get fired as Woody Johnson opted to start a new era of Jets' football with Darren Mougey as his General Manager and former Jet Aaron Glenn as his head coach.
One of the first big decisions the new regime made was to move on from Rodgers, who has not officially been cut yet but has been informed that the team is moving in a different direction. Starting fresh with Rodgers allows the team to potentially draft a new quarterback in April and start cleaning up their salary cap, which isn't in an ideal situation after previous GM Joe Douglas mortgaged the future by tacking on void years into restructures to clear cap space to make win now-moves under Rodgers.
The good news for the Jets is that by starting the process of cleaning up their cap now they can not only improve their books for future years but create significant spending power for the 2025 free agent cycle. Let's take a look at five moves the Jets can make to create up to $62 million in cap room based on figures from Over The Cap.
5. Extend Alijah-Vera Tucker
While contract extensions for the 2022 draft class are likely a priority for the new regime, particularly with WR Garrett Wilson and CB Sauce Gardner, taking care of a member of the 2021 class can be particularly valuable in terms of cap space. RG Alijah Vera-Tucker, who has proven to be a quality player that is just 26 years old, is set to play the 2025 season on his fifth-year option that will charge the team $15.3 million against the cap.
That sum is fully guaranteed and was a bit of a gamble for the Jets since Vera-Tucker missed significant time over the previous two seasons due to season-ending injuries suffered in Denver. Vera-Tucker was much healthier in 2024, playing 15 of a possible 17 games, and appears to be a long-term solution for the team at right guard with the ability to slide over to right tackle if the new regime feels he can hold down that spot.
Hammering out an extension with Vera-Tucker would allow the Jets to convert some of his 2025 base salary into a signing bonus, freeing $11.3 million to use elsewhere. It would also allow the Jets to be proactive in keeping their offensive line, which finally started to gel towards the end of last season, together over the next several years.
4. Cut C.J. Mosley with a post-June 1 designation
C.J. Mosley has been a key piece of the Jets' defense for the past few years and a valuable leader in the locker room but time is starting to catch up with him. A neck injury sidelined Mosley for all but four games in 2025, reportedly leading the star linebacker to contemplate retirement.
The Jets are also likely to consider moving on from Mosley, who is now 33 years old, as Glenn looks to make the defense a bit younger. The issue with cutting Mosley right now is that Douglas handed the veteran a contract extension for two years to create more cap space last summer, meaning the Jets wouldn't save anything by cutting him now.
Using one of the team's two post-June 1 release designations would allow the Jets to gain $4 million in cap space after that date while inheriting an $8.8 million dead cap hit in 2025. That math doesn't change even if Mosley retires, but using the money then could allow the Jets to either target a free agent still lingering on the market at that point or roll their savings over to 2026 to offset some dead cap hits that will be hanging on there.
3. Cut Allen Lazard
Perhaps no single transaction is more emblematic of the Jets' all-in embrace of Rodgers' former Green Bay Packers' teammates than signing Lazard to a four-year, $44 million contract prior to the 2023 season. Lazard was a disaster without Rodgers in 2023, performing so poorly that the Jets made him a healthy scratch late in the season, but was looking more like himself with Rodgers back under center in 2024.
Despite some strong early production, the Jets still didn't get a ton of bang for their buck from Lazard as he missed five games with a chest injury in the middle of the season. The final totals for Lazard as a Jet look decent if it was for one full season (60 catches for 841 yards with seven touchdowns) but having that production spread over two years shows his contract is a massive overpay.
Douglas did appear to anticipate some buyer's remorse with Lazard by building a natural out two years into the deal, allowing the Jets to move on from him and save $6.5 million against the cap. The team will also be saddled with a $6.5 million dead cap hit but 2023 serves as a good reminder that having Lazard without Rodgers is pretty useless, even for a team that will be thin at receiver after its cap-saving maneuvers.
2. Cut Rodgers with a post June 1 designation
Now we can circle back to Rodgers, whose financial impact warrants further discussion. When Rodgers restructured his contract to create cap room for the Jets to add talent in 2023, Douglas tacked on some void years at the end of the deal to lower his cap hit then, kicking the can down the road.
If the Jets had opted to try and go one more year with Rodgers, the void years Douglas tacked on would have left them with a whopping $63 million dead cap hit for the 2026 offseason, which combined with his current cap charge of $22 million means they would have paid about $85 million in salary cap space for one season of a 41-year old quarterback. The math doesn't math well there, making the decision to move on a prudent one.
While the Jets could opt to take all the cap pain from Rodgers this season, it would cost them $49 million in dead cap and make it much more difficult to address their various roster needs. Designating Rodgers as a post-June 1st release, which appears to be the direction they are going, would move $35 million of that dead cap into 2026 while freeing $9.5 million of room after that date to go along with another $28 million next spring.
The situation isn't ideal in any way but with the continuous projected increases in the salary cap making this decision is a logical call to minimize the financial pain from the end of the Rodgers era. If the cap goes up another $20 million in 2026, for example, that could reduce the burden of dead cap hits from Rodgers to essentially $15 million, which is entirely manageable.
1. Trade or cut Davante Adams
The biggest avenue for the Jets to create cap space is to move on from Adams, who Rodgers finally got on his side in the middle of last season at the cost of a third-round pick in this year's draft. Adams is still a very good receiver but will have no desire to stay in New York without his favorite quarterback, setting the stage for the Jets to move on here.
The positive of the Adams situation is that his current contract includes zero guaranteed money, leaving only a minimal $8.3 million dead cap hit if the Jets move on from him. With Rodgers and Mosley designated as the team's post-June 1 releases, Adams can either be cut or traded, which would guarantee the same cap savings either way.
The benefit of a potential trade is it would allow the Jets to recoup some draft capital or another player to move on from Adams, who is believed to prefer a return to the West Coast. One potential match could be with the Los Angeles Rams, who are looking to move on from Cooper Kupp, and a deal of Adams for Kupp (with some potential draft capital being exchanged on both sides) would be a beneficial one.
The problem with a potential trade is that teams know the Jets have to move on from Adams, so surrendering draft capital only makes sense if you are trying to ensure you don't need to win a free-agent bidding war for his services. The most likely scenario is that the Jets simply have to waive Adams prior to the start of free agency, generating almost $30 million salary cap space but creating a giant hole opposite Garrett Wilson in their receiver room.