A Jets–Aaron Rodgers Divorce Could Get Expensive

Aaron Rodgers’s time with the Jets has been nothing short of a disaster. And an expensive one.

Just minutes into his first season, he tore his Achilles tendon and missed the rest of the year. Five games into his second season, the Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh after starting out 2–3. Things haven’t gotten better for New York, despite luring Davante Adams, Rodgers’s top receiver in Green Bay, from the Raiders. Sunday’s overtime loss to the Dolphins brought the Jets to 3–10 on the year, and out of playoff contention for the 14th consecutive season. It’s the longest current postseason drought for any NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, or WNBA team.

The tension within the organization has seeped out through petty comments to the media (not to be confused with former Jets quarterback Bryce Petty). Rodgers has openly criticized Jets ownership, which also fired GM Joe Douglas in November. “I think it’s an important part of ownership to hire the right guys, set the vision and support them when the outside world is trying to tear them down,” Rodgers said last week on The Pat McAfee Show. Meanwhile, on Sunday, his receiver Garrett Wilson addressed his quarterback throwing for more than 300 yards for the first time since 2021. “I’m glad he got over that hurdle,” Wilson said. “Cool.”

The incoming Jets regime will have a Rodgers problem, no matter what they decide to do with him. He has no guaranteed money left on his deal, but getting rid of the quarterback would take a big toll on their salary cap in 2025 and potentially future years. He signed a three-year, $112.5 million deal with New York in April 2023, and gave back about $35 million of it later that year. The Jets appear to want to replace Rodgers, though the ultimate decision-maker could change if owner Woody Johnson joins the Trump Administration and Johnson’s brother Christopher takes over the team again.

Here are the Jets’ options, and the financial implications:

• Rodgers comes back for 2025: The Jets owe him $23.5 million. He has a $2.5 million base salary and a $35 million option bonus.
  
• Rodgers retires or gets cut: The Jets absorb $49 million in dead cap, which they can spread out over two years if they cut him after June 1. That would look like $14 million in 2025 and $35 million in 2026. When talking about his future, Rodgers said in November that he’s “open to everything and attached to nothing.”
  
• Rodgers is traded: The quarterback has a no-trade clause in his contract, meaning the Jets can’t trade him without his approval. Though not impossible, it’s unlikely another team would want to pick up the veteran quarterback after his mediocre showing this season.
  
• Rodgers comes back for 2025, but then leaves after the season: The dead charge increases to $63 million. But wouldn’t his three-year deal be up by then, you might ask? Yes, it would, but the Jets attached void years to his contract, kicking some salary-cap pain down the road. If Rodgers plays exactly one more season for the Jets, that would leave the team with $63 million in dead money, which they could just eat in 2026 or spread over two years.

Rodgers did have his best game of the season Sunday, throwing for 339 yards and a touchdown in an efficient performance. But the 41-year-old QB has mostly shown his age this season, ranking near the bottom of the league in most comprehensive metrics.