The New York Jets have made a decision regarding Aaron Rodgers, and it’s not a cheap one.
The Jets will be releasing Rodgers as of Wednesday. The move means the Jets will have to eat $49 million in dead money against their salary cap over the next two years. Since they are designating Rodgers as a post-June 1 cut, they will take a $14 million dead cap hit in 2025 and a larger $35 million dead cap hit in 2026.
Ultimately, Rodgers’ tenure with the Jets will go down as a bust.
Rodgers was traded to the Jets in April 2023 amid great fanfare. But he tore his Achilles tendon on his first drive of the opening game and ended up missing the entire season. Then in 2024, Rodgers was working his way back and trying to find his footing with the team. Though he passed for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, his Jets went 5-12. New York even made big moves, such as firing head coach Robert Saleh and acquiring Davante Adams in a trade, but nothing helped.
Though these are big numbers for the Jets to take, the typical work around is to find a rookie quarterback to start. The Denver Broncos successfully maneuvered this when they took a big dead money cap hit to release Russell Wilson last year. They replaced him with rookie Bo Nix, who turned in a strong rookie season.
Rather than go with a rookie though, the Jets signed Justin Fields to a 2-year, $40 million deal. When you add up the amount of money they’ll owe Fields plus Rodgers’ dead cap money, you end up with the equivalent salary of a highly paid quarterback.
