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The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers worked out a way around his deal for salary cap purposes, as usually happens in the National Football League.
So, now that he’s been traded to the New York Jets, it’ll be up to his new team to deal with the financial hurdles that come with having one of the highest-paid athletes on Earth.
Notably, ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported how things are structured right now, pointing out that Rodgers will make just north of $1 million in salary in 2023 and then a whopping $107 million in the following campaign.
It appears the Packers converted Aaron Rodgers’ $58.3M 2023 option bonus into 2024 salary, which means he’s scheduled to make $1.165M this year and $107.55M next year. So he’d only count $1.165M against the Jets’ cap this year, and obviously they’ll restructure next year.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) April 27, 2023
Of course, Graziano added that they could restructure the contract this offseason so he’s not playing for the league minimum in 2023, which also seems like a likely scenario.
Rodgers was the highest-earning player in the league before Jalen Hurts’ mammoth deal, and this is yet another example of how teams can work their way around the salary cap if the players are willing to play ball.
Basically, Rodgers could play for pocket change — by his standards — this season, and the Jets could have some leverage and incentives to keep him around for another year instead of retiring, but Rodgers isn’t likely to give up control like that.
There’s also a chance they continue to restructure this contract over and over, up to the point where Rodgers’ deal will continue to count against the cap for years to come, even after he’s retired.
But worry not, Jets fans, even if that’s the case, they’ll most definitely figure a way to work the system like all teams do.
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