The Jets' Future Cap Dead Money Issue

Discussion in 'New York Jets' started by NCJetsfan, Jun 1, 2023.

  1. NCJetsfan

    NCJetsfan Well-Known Member

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    I read in today's The Jets Way the following:

    Is anyone else concerned about this? We have Q to pay, a ton (30 something) FAs next offseason, G. Wilson, Huff, Jermaine Johnson, AVT, Sauce and others that will need paying.

    According to a post that KYJets made yesterday, I think, the Jets now have around $24 million in cap space for this season. Unless they plan and are able to put most of Q's contract money in this year, why do that when FA is already over, and the only FA that they are likely to sign at this point is Kwon Alexander. I understand that they'll want to keep $8-10 million open in case of injuries, but I don't understand having $24 million unused cap for this season and having so much dead money the next 3 seasons. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, and having to wind up letting good players walk in FA.

    Thoughts?
     
  2. Jets79

    Jets79 Well-Known Member

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    Personally, I used to worry about cap issues more than I do these days…for me, I just think that there are so many ways to massage the cap, between converting between salary and bonus (depending on which way the team wants to go), or extending contracts with voidable years, or renegotiating deals (like we did with Lawson this year)…there are plenty of options open to teams. You hardly ever see a team lose a player they REALLY want to keep because of cap issues…yes, teams use the cap to negotiate with players, and of course there are players the team would love to keep but can’t due to cap, but those players aren’t really “Must Have” guys…they’re more “Would Love to Have” guys.

    The other point is we have no idea what the team’s thinking is and how they are lining up their players for future years, so some stuff that may not make sense for us with incomplete visibility may not be an issue for the GM and the team.

    I don’t know…I trust JD enough to believe he’s doing all this with an overarching multi year vision and plan, and that this kind of stuff will work itself out.

    Right now, it seems to me the biggest issues are to get a deal done with Q and to redo AR’s deal. Seems like JD has been making various moves to open up cap space this year…I gotta think he’s going to use some or most of that space to work out Q and/or AR

    The flexibility available by contract structures, combined with the almost 100% certainty that the cap will continue to increase (especially as the NFL moves into more of the streaming market), to me means that the future cap implications are likely not as crazy or dire as they may appear from where we sit today
     
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  3. NCJetsfan

    NCJetsfan Well-Known Member

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    It's funny, with the exception of when Bradway (or was it Mac) was GM and kicked so much money down the road and it wound up biting the Jets, I haven't worried because we haven't had that much dead money with the exception of a player of two that Mac handed out big FA contracts to.......

    We may not lose "must have" players, but it's hard to maintain chemistry and consistency if you're losing a number of "would love to have" guys every year. I still trust JD, but not nearly as much as I did. I lost a lot of confidence and trust in him once I realized how he botched the handling of Zach. Even though I think he has done an awesome job overall, it could be the one thing that undermines, if not sabotages, all the other work he has done in building this roster and handling the cap. I think Saleh has been a very good coach for the most part, but I still can't help but think that Brian Daboll should have been the hire with a rookie QB. IMO that's part of the botched handling of Zach.

    At any rate, I hope that you're right that it will all work out.
     
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  4. GasedAndConfused

    GasedAndConfused Well-Known Member

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    cap goes up every year. 33.9 in dead money in 2025 is going to feel like much less. the cap is about to take a jump once the new TV deals kick in (should see big jumps in 2024 and 2025) 17 mil is basically nothing as well. 20 teams this year alone are carrying more then 17mil in dead money (we are at 8ish mil) the eagles are carrying 55 mil in dead cap this year and just paid their FQB and are a pretty stacked team.
     
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  5. Footballgod214

    Footballgod214 Well-Known Member

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    Between Nacho Sam and now ZW we've been fortunate to have a QB on a rookie deal the last decade+. I felt sorry for teams that had to pay mega bucks to their QB and try to field a good team. Seattle having to pay Russell Wilson changed the entire team, they lost the whole legion of boom. But now the Jets have been transformed into one of those teams paying mega bucks to a QB overnight. Plus another $10m to a 1st round QB.
     
  6. Jonathan_Vilma

    Jonathan_Vilma Well-Known Member

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    Funny the article mentions the Saints, they’ve navigated around it for half a decade.

    It helps when you keep homegrown players. They’re usually a lot more willing to help the team by shuffling around bonuses and such than mercenaries are.
     
  7. JetFanInNE

    JetFanInNE Well-Known Member

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    They’re trying to clear up as much cap space as possible so they can give more money to Rodgers this year, thereby owing him less the next couple years
     
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