The Jets and Aaron Rodgers Are Getting a $49 Million Divorce

The disastrous Aaron Rodgers Jets era appears to be over.

Two different Fox reporters said on Super Bowl Sunday that the Jets are done with the 41-year-old quarterback. Jay Glazer reported that Rodgers recently flew to the team’s New Jersey headquarters, “only to be told that the team was moving on from him.”

The Jets recently hired Aaron Glenn as their head coach, and the former Lions defensive coordinator had been cagey about his plans at quarterback.

Getting rid of Rodgers will likely be expensive, and Glazer reported that the QB wants to play in the NFL again next year. If the team designates him as a post-June 1 cut—which Glazer suggested was likely—they will eat $49 million in dead cap money, $14 million in 2025 and $35 million in 2026. That would let any team sign Rodgers when the league year begins on March 12.

The Jets could trade Rodgers, but he has a no-trade clause that lets him limit his destination and it’s unlikely any team would surrender significant assets for a 41-year-old player whose athleticism and production have sharply dropped.

Rodgers was traded to the Jets in 2023 and eventually agreed to a restructured two-year, $75 million fully guaranteed contract with the team. (The complicated deal tied the sides together past 2024 because of several void years attached to the end to ease the cap pain. Rodgers took a $30 million pay cut in the process.)

The four-time MVP was heralded as a savior when he arrived on the East Coast. Forget about ending the Jets’ playoff drought, then and now the longest in U.S. sports. He brought legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, joining a New York roster that was widely thought to be loaded outside of quarterback.

Instead, it became a nightmare almost immediately. Rodgers tore his Achilles on the fourth play of the 2023 season, and it quickly became clear that the Jets did not adequately prepare for the possibility. Poor QB play, again, doomed that Jets team to a 7–10 record.

Owner Woody Johnson gave head coach Robert Saleh and GM Joe Douglas a mulligan on that season, going all in on the Saleh-Rodgers-Douglas trio for 2024.

It wasn’t quite four plays, but it all fell apart nearly as quickly this fall. By the end of September, with the Jets sitting at .500, Johnson suggested to Saleh and Douglas that Rodgers be benched. When the report emerged several months later, the Jets suggested Johnson was joking, but the poor quality of his team was no joke. Johnson fired Saleh a week after the meeting where the Rodgers benching was floated. About a month later, Johnson landed his helicopter on the practice field and fired Douglas.

The Jets limped to a 5–12 finish, with Rodgers cracking jokes on The Pat McAfee Show about how one of Johnson’s notoriously involved teenage sons might cut him.

Despite his clearly diminished ability, Rodgers had one of the best statistical seasons by a Jets quarterback ever. He managed to play in all 17 games, throwing for 28 touchdowns and over 3,800 yards. He finished seventh in Comeback Player of the Year voting.