Last week, after months of speculation that Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers would take a pay cut with his new team even though his new team had not asked for one, Rodgers slashed his compensation over the next two years by a whopping $33.7 million.
Peter King recently asked Rodgers about the decision.
“What it comes down to it was … it was the right thing that made me feel best,” Rodgers said, in quotes contained in King’s Football Morning in America column.
Rodgers clearly doesn’t need the money. But, frankly, the Jets didn’t need $33.7 million from Rodgers over the next two years ($16.85 million per year) to field a competitive team. It was, ultimately, a massive gratuity for a Big Pharma heir, from a player who believes Big Pharma has instigated the media to vilify him.
“I thought it was important they knew how committed I was,” Rodgers told King. “And in my conversations with [G.M.] Joe [Douglas], he has made it very clear the vision for the football team.”
There’s definitely an element of a backhanded middle finger to the Packers in this move. And maybe Rodgers knew from the moment he leveraged back-to-back MVP seasons into a $50 million-per-year deal with the Packers that he’d eventually slash his pay once he ends up with a new team.
Whatever the strategy, Rodgers surely has one. He explained to King that leaving the cash and cap space behind could help the Jets make moves for veterans who become available, something the Packers rarely if ever did.
“Big names move at the trade deadline now,” Rodgers said. “I wanted to make sure that if somebody valuable came available that we’d be able to get him.”
That’s the danger for the Jets. Rodgers will now expect them to do it, and to not just pretend they tried (like the Packers did in 2021, when Odell Beckham, Jr. was on the market and Green Bay made a half-hearted effort to sign him).
Ultimately, Rodgers will quite possibly get a return for the money he gave up, whether monetary or otherwise. If taking less persuades others to take less and helps the Jets put together a better team, Rodgers can add to his legacy by getting back to the Super Bowl, for the first time since 2010. There’s value in that, especially when it comes to Rodgers’s unofficial placement among the great quarterbacks of all time.
Then there’s the possibility that the $33.7 million will make its way back to him, one way or the other. As noted on Sunday, his no-voids, seven-year contract contains a conspicuous $35 million option bonus in 2025. They could pay it, he could retire, and they could not ask him to give it back.
Also, don’t forget that Rodgers was trying to get equity as part of his contract with the Jets, before the NFL slammed the door on giving players and other employees ownership of the team. What’s to stop owner Woody Johnson from selling Rodgers a sliver of the team after he’s done playing?
The appreciation would likely exceed the $33.7 million haircut he has taken during his extended honeymoon with the Jets.