The Aaron Rodgers questions will linger over the Jets offseason for weeks and maybe months.
Does Rodgers want to keep playing? Do the Jets want Rodgers back? If the Jets don’t want Rodgers, will he go to another team for his 21st season?
We won’t find out the answers until we know who the new general manager and head coach are and Rodgers announces his decision.
Rodgers has said he won’t drag this out too long, saying he will have a decision before free agency begins in March.
Jets owner Woody Johnson told The Post on Sunday that the new GM and coach will decide Rodgers’ future with the team.
One aspect of that decision is Rodgers’ contract. Rodgers renegotiated his deal when he got to the Jets in 2023 and took a pay cut. Rodgers has no more guaranteed money owed to him in the contract, but the decision still carries salary cap implications.
Here is a breakdown with some help from Over The Cap of the Jets’ decisions when it comes to Rodgers and his contract:
Cutting Aaron Rodgers
If the Jets decide to cut him this year, his ᴅᴇᴀᴅ money charge will be $49 million in 2025. The Jets could split that up between 2025 and ’26 if they make him a post-June 1 designation. In that case, it would be $21 million in ᴅᴇᴀᴅ money in 2025 and $28 million in ’26.
That would really be a philosophical decision the new GM would have to make. They may feel like just taking their medicine in 2025 and eating the whole $49 million ᴅᴇᴀᴅ money charge. That feels like a huge number but the Broncos took a $53 million ᴅᴇᴀᴅ money charge for cutting Russell Wilson this season. It can be done.
Keeping Aaron Rodgers
If the Jets decide to bring Rodgers back, his salary cap charge is $23.5 million. But they would be paying him $37.5 million in cash between a $35 million bonus and his $2.5 million base salary. The $35 million bonus would be prorated over five years. Rodgers has four void years tacked onto his contract from 2026-29 for salary cap purposes.
If he played for the Jets in 2025 and the team cut him in 2026, the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ money charge in 2026 would be $63 million because of the prorated bonus money. That means the Jets would be taking $86.5 million in cap charges between 2025 and 2026 if he plays this year.
The Jets could designate him as a post-June 1 release in 2026 if he agrees to renegotiate his $20 million base salary for that year. They could make the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ money charges $21 million in 2026 and $42 million in 2027.
The other option, if Rodgers returns, is to ask him to take another pay cut, something he recently said he would be open to. That could then lower these numbers if he decides to keep playing.
