It has been described as a two-year deal. Technically, it isn’t.
The new contract between Aaron Rodgers and the Jets lasts for seven years, with no void or other device for ending it early.
That’s significant, for a couple of reasons. First, it makes the no-tag clause meaningless, because the contract wouldn’t expire until March 2030. Second, it gives the Jets greater control over Rodgers’s next step, if there is one.
Rodgers can retire, but he can’t force his way to freedom without the Jets releasing him. Of course, giving up $33.7 million in pay over the next two years will make it hard for the man who saved that money to say “no” if Rodgers wants out.
Right away, Rodgers gets a $35 million roster bonus, subject to five-year proration. He also has a $1.838 million base salary for 2023. His cap number for the current year is $8.88 million.
For 2024, he has a $35 million option bonus and a base salary of $3.161 million. Both are fully guaranteed. And if the option bonus isn’t exercised, Rodgers’s salary for 2024 increases to $38.161 million. The cap number is $17.16 million.
Come 2025, there’s no void. Rodgers is on the books for another $35 million option bonus and a $2.5 million salary. Neither payment is guaranteed. It’s a cap number of $23.5 million, assuming he plays. If he does, he’ll be 41 when the season starts, and 42 by the time it ends.
The 2026 through 2029 seasons contain base salaries of $20 million per year.
If Rodgers retires after two years (or if he is released so he can continue to follow the Favre career arc and sign with the Vikings), a pre-June 1 move would result in a $49 million cap charge. After June 1, the Jets would take $14 million in 2025 and $35 million in 2026.
Thus, even with Rodgers taking so much less than he was due to make over the next two years, there will be a price to pay under the cap when he leaves. Specifically, they’ll have either $49 million less to work with in 2025, or $14 million less in 2025 and $35 million less in 2026.
There’s one last point to ponder on this. As a bookend to the $33.7 million gratuity that Rodgers gave the Jets on the way through the door, they could — in theory — pay him the $35 million option bonus in 2025 and then, if he retires, not try to recover it. However, that would drive the cap consequences for a post-June 1 retirement to $21 million in 2025 and a staggering $63 million in 2026.
