Jets' Joe Douglas Facing Salary Cap Crisis This Offseason

This former Jets scout walks through the salary cap situation New York is dealing with this offseason.

There continues to be so much chatter amongst Jets' fans and mainstream Jets' media about which big name veteran quarterback the team is going to go and get.

There's one detail everyone is forgetting...

The salary cap is the sobering factor facing the Jets and their team General Manager, Joe Douglas.

Currently, New York's cap is in the negative.

As of now, the Jets are projected to be $2.7 million over the cap ($2,674,607 to be exact). And yet, there is this mainstream thought process that the Jets are going to sign a high priced veteran quarterback?

The rebuttal is New York can clear cap space, but the question is how?

Outside of restructuring some existing contracts, the options are limited.

A total of $3,351,340 is allotted to this next draft class.

There are other issues too Douglas is facing too.

Currently, only seven offensive linemen are under contract for 2023 (four of them are coming off an injury list). There are 24 free agents total who were with the team in 2022, who are no longer under contract.

Those positions and needs will have to take priority over a high-priced veteran quarterback, because without a viable offensive line (and offensive line depth), none of these veteran signal-callers would remotely be interested in playing in New York.

The supporting cast at other positions is equally as important, when courting a veteran quarterback. These field generals want to go places that give them the best chance of winning a Super Bowl, not end up on a team fighting for last place.

Douglas has allotted big deals to certain veteran players that carry serious dead cap space implications if cut prior to June 1. These veterans are Laken Tomlinson ($12.7M), D.J. Reed ($10.5M), and C.J. Uzomah ($8.0M).

It's not as easy as cutting quarterback Zach Wilson either when by doing so would leave behind $20,770,856 of dead cap space this season or $15,039,823 post-June 1.

Teams tend to wait until after June 1 to cut veterans to lessen the cap blow, but by then it's too late to upgrade the roster much, which is by design. There is an allowance to designate two players prior to June 1 as "post-June 1 designations," which helps keep teams in compliance with the salary cap.

The two most likely candidates for this designation would be linebacker C.J. Mosley who is scheduled to be a $21.7M cap hit ($4,476,000 post June 1 dead money), and offensive tackle Duane Brown ($9M cap hit, $1,576,000 post June 1 dead money).

Who are some of the current veterans who carry low dead cap weight prior to June 1 Douglas could cut (that still would need to be replaced)?

• DE Carl Lawson ($15M dead cap hit $333,334)
• DE John Franklin-Myers ($11.4M dead cap hit $1.2M)
• WR Corey Davis ($10.5M dead cap hit $666,667)
• S Jordan Whitehead ($6.75M dead cap hit $2,982,500)

So Douglas could clear roughly $62 million by cutting these six players prior to June 1, but they would need to be replaced on the roster, plus there's still the issue of the offensive line and the 24 current Jets' free agents.

Las Vegas' quarterback Derek Carr will carry a 2023 cap number of $32.9M, and signal caller Aaron Rodgers is scheduled to count $31,623,568 against Green Bay's cap.

The expected market value of the top free agent quarterbacks isn't much better. Tom Brady is expected to command an annual salary of $40.8M, Lamar Jackson ($40.7M), Geno Smith ($39.9M) Jimmy Garoppolo ($34.9M), Daniel Jones ($25.5M), and Taylor Heinicke ($19.8M).

The 24 free agents the Jets will need to resign or replace are: (QB) Mike White, (QB) Joe Flacco, (RB) Ty Johnson, (OT) George Fant, (OT) Cedric Ogbuehi, (OT) Mike Remmers, (C) Connor McGovern, (OG) Dan Feeney, (DE) Solomon Thomas, (DE) Vinny Curry, (DE) Nathan Shepherd, (OG) Nate Herbig, (DT) Sheldon Rankins, (K) Greg Zuerlein, (FS) LaMarus Joyner, (LB) Kwon Alexander, (LB) Quincy Williams and (LB) Marcell Harris.

The following restricted free agents to address: (FB) Nick Bawden, (OT) Greg Senat, (WR) Jeff Smith, (WR) Lawrence Cager, (LB) Bryce Huff, and (RB) James Robinson.

Without these 24 players what does New York's team look like? Who would replace them and what would their cap numbers be?

If they do re-sign all of them, how much of that $62 million would they take (last year these 24 contracts added up to $54,127,176).

This doesn't leave much money for anything else and for sure not an upper echelon high-priced veteran quarterback. 

MORE:

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• Giants' Quick Turnaround Is Bad Look For Jets
• Joe Namath: Jets 'Need a Change' at Quarterback, Wants Aaron Rodgers

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