Jets should keep eyes on how Chargers approach salary cap deadline

By 4:00 PM EST on Wednesday, when the new league year begins, all teams have to be under the salary cap. For the Los Angeles Chargers, with just a few hours remaining, they have a lot of work to do, which could be of interest to the New York Jets.

The Chargers don’t just have a little work to do to get under the salary cap, but rather quite a bit. Over the Cap currently has them at $25.1 million over this year’s salary cap figure.

As the Chargers work their way out of the red in the coming hours, there are four players in particular to keep our eyes on. Edge rushers Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, along with receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, all of whom currently rank in the top 12 of the NFL in individual player cap hits this season—ranging from $32.4 million with Williams to $38.5 million with Mack.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Chargers are expected to trade or release at least one of those four players to get needed cap relief.

For the Jets, after addressing the offensive line, their second biggest need that they have to tackle this offseason is finding a reliable secondary wide receiver to pair with Garrett Wilson.

Of course, having Aaron Rodgers back under center will provide a boost to the passing game’s production, but additional help at reciever is still needed. Although Wilson had over 1,000 receiving yards in 2023, the Jets’ second leading receiver was Allen Lazard with 311 yards and then Xavier Gipson with 229 yards.

A strong secondary option in the passing game will take some of the burden off of Wilson and help to create better spacing with the defense forced to defend the entire field, thus opening up opportunities elsewhere for Rodgers to exploit.

Allen has consistently been one of the best receivers in football and primarily lines up in the slot. He has eclipsed 1,100 receiving yards in five of the last seven seasons. In the two years he didn’t hit that mark, he still managed 813 yards in 2022 and 992 yards in 2020. Allen has also averaged 6.3 touchdowns per season during that span.

Williams, meanwhile, played in only three games last season, but from 2020 to 2022, he recorded 756 receiving yards, 1,146 receiving yards, and 895 receiving yards, respectively. Williams also scored 18 total touchdowns and averaged an impressive 15.1 yards per catch.

On paper, either would be a great addition to the Jets’ offense, but as always, there will be a cost to acquire either Allen or Williams in the form of cap space, draft capital, or both.

If the Chargers want to find a trade partner, the Jets are somewhat limited in what they can send as part of a trade package, with only two picks in the top 100 and one of them – presumably the 10th overall pick – needing to be spent on the offensive tackle position. Overall, the Jets’ rank 22nd in draft capital value.

As part of the trade, the Jets would also inherit either players’ current contract. Allen is in the final year of his deal and comes with a base salary of $18.1 million. Williams is also in the final year of his contract and has a base salary of $17 million. Both players would require new contracts if traded.

However, if a trade doesn’t work out, and either player hits the open market with the Chargers having to release them, the Jets are still somewhat limited from a cap space perspective. Over the Cap currently has New York with only $12.1 million in available cap space, which ranks 19th. With that said, the Jets do have the means to create quite a bit more room, it just depends on how aggressive Joe Douglas wants to pushing cap charges to future years.

The current free agent receiver market has moved somewhat slowly, so gauging what either Allen or Williams could earn on the open market has some guess work involved. But what we do know right now is that Darnell Mooney signed with Atlanta for an average annual value of $13 million per year, as did Gabe Davis with Jacksonville. PFF also projects that Calvin Ridley will earn a contract worth $18.5 million per year.

Perhaps neither Allen nor Williams end up hitting free agency or even being on the trade block, but with it being crunch time and the Chargers having to make some difficult decisions in the coming hours, I imagine the Jets are monitoring the situation with their own need at receiver to fill.