Gang Green Nation
There are good cap reasons for Rodgers to not be back.
With the Jets reportedly moving on from Aaron Rodgers, this is a good time to discuss Rodgers’ salary cap status in 2024.
You might hear the phrase “dead money” thrown around a lot in NFL discussions but not understand what it is. The concept is simple. Dead money is a salary cap charge for a player who is no longer on your team.
The salary cap can seem like a complex, unapproachable behemoth, but it is generally far less complex than we make it out to be.
If Rodgers is not on the team in 2025, the Jets will be hit with a $49 million dead money charge. Why is that? I will tell you.
During his time with the Jets, Rodgers has been paid $75 million in total by the team. However, the Jets have only been charged $26 million against the salary cap. The amount remaining on the Jets’ tab is $49 million. That bill becomes immediate due once a player leaves a team.
You can pay a player a certain amount but structure a deal in a way that his immediate cap hit is for a lower amount. The rest of the money doesn’t disappear, though. It is eventually charged to your salary cap. It isn’t completely unlike using a credit card. You buy now and pay later. The bill does eventually come due, though.
And all of the media pundits who were boasting to you about how genius the Rodgers contract was two years ago because he only had a combined $26 million cap charge for 2023 and 2024? They were like the credit card companies selling their teaser rate. They weren’t talking much about the $49 million dead money hit to come.
The Jets do have the option of designating Rodgers a post June 1 cut, which would spread the dead money out over two seasons. Doing so would put the Jets on the hook for $14 million in dead money in 2025 and force the team to carry the remaining $35 million on the cap in 2026. Given that 2025 is the first year of a new regime, and the team is likely entering a reboot year anyway, I see a strong argument for just taking the full $49 million hit this year and being done with it.
