The NFL offseason never sleeps. And the offseason giant will be awakening very soon.
Then again, it always slumbers with one eye open.
One of the biggest questions hovering over the looming quarterback carousel could be resolved in the immediate future. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that a decision on the future of Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers could come as soon as this week.
Per the report, the Jets and Rodgers have already been talking about his future. At the press conference introducing Aaron Glenn as the Jets’ latest new head coach, the comments from Glenn, new G.M. Darren Mougey, and owner Woody Johnson seemed to point to a looming parting of the ways.
That sense had been emerging for weeks. During his weekly press conferences and Tuesday ESPN bully pulpits with Pat McAfee during the 2024 season, Rodgers had repeatedly needled the team and owner Woody Johnson. The biggest jab happened when Rodgers specifically and pointedly contrasted the owners who supported their coaches and General Managers with the owner of Rodgers’s current team.
Rapoport notes that, if Rodgers stays, he’ll “almost surely” have to take a pay cut from his current compensation package of $37.5 million for 2025. That makes a split seem even more likely. Rodgers gave up more than $30 million when he arrived in 2023; why would he or should he take less, especially when the market currently tops out at $60 million per year?
The challenge becomes managing $49 million in dead money. The most sensible move would be to release him on the first day of the new league year. That would spark a $14 million cap hit in 2025, with $35 million deferred to 2026.
Our guess today is the same as it’s been since the report emerged that Johnson suggested benching Rodgers after a Week 4 loss to the Broncos. The Jets, we believe, will move on. The only question is whether he’ll find another new team or retire.
For Rodgers, the play-or-not decision will be driven by whether he wants the final act of his career to be one of his worst seasons as a starter — and whether he thinks there’s a place where he’s more likely to have a last season that will be better than his last season with the Jets.
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