How the Jets can still create $50 million in cap space for the 2024 offseason

The New York Jets have made several additions, most of which have been relatively low-cost, short-term deals, outside of John Simpson and Tyrod Taylor, both landing contracts in the neighborhood of two years with $18 million in earning potential.

However, in the grand scheme of the free agency spending that has taken place so far, even those contracts for Simpson and Taylor would be considered modest. I imagine a contributor to Joe Douglas’ approach during the first two days of the NFL’s legal tampering period is that the Jets are only in an okay salary cap situation.

Taking into account the contracts that have been reported, Over the Cap (OTC) has the Jets with only $12.29 million in available cap space at the moment, which ranks 19th in the NFL.

At some point this offseason, Douglas is going to have to create more cap space. The big reason is that the $12.29 million figure does not take into account incoming cap costs, such as signing the new draft class, which OTC projects for the Jets to be around $10.9 million.

On top of that, the Jets also need cap space in order to put together a practice squad and need reserves for when the season begins so they can make additions if needed, along with taking into account game day elevations, among other typical operating costs.

You’ll notice that none of what I mentioned included bringing in new free agents, which the Jets will continue to do with still relatively big roster holes along the offensive line and at receiver, in addition to some other positions, like safety, where additional depth is needed.

So, Douglas is going to have to create additional cap space. It’s just more so a matter of when those moves take place rather than if. With the help of OTC, below is a look at the cap-saving moves that the Jets have at their disposal along with projected savings.

Now, before we dive in, the important thing to keep in mind is that these projections from OTC are if the Jets went all out and pushed the maxed amount of cap charges to future years. Not all of these moves are going to happen, and they may not even happen to the extent that OTC estimates. The important thing to keep in mind with the salary cap is that any cap space created today reduces flexibility in future years. However, this does give us a look at the options that the Jets have.