John Franklin-Myers explained his new contract vs. what the New York Jets offered him
Perhaps the most vexing draft move for New York Jets fans was the team’s trade of John Franklin-Myers. In what was a clear salary dump, they sent Franklin-Myers to the Denver Broncos in return for a 2026 sixth-round pick. That was a pittance for one of the Jets’ most important defenders and left a hole on their defensive line.
The trade became all the more curious when Denver redid Franklin-Myers’ deal. Franklin-Myers’ new deal is two years and $15 million with $7.9 million fully guaranteed and a $5 million cap charge in 2024. Did the Jets offer anything remotely similar?
Per Franklin-Myers, the answer is no.
They didn’t offer me anything close to this 🥴 https://t.co/Tsbl5paSLb
— John Franklin-Myers (@J_FranklinMyers) May 2, 2024
Had the Jets offered Franklin-Myers the same deal, his cap charge would have been higher because of his original contract. He had $9.056 million remaining from his original signing bonus which would have been prorated as before across the next four seasons.
Still, had the Jets given Franklin-Myers the same deal as Denver, his 2024 cap hit would have been $7.464 million. They would have saved $8.9 million from his original cap hit of $16.364 million. The Jets saved only $7.308 million by trading Franklin-Myers. In other words, they lost $1.592 million by trading him rather than giving him the same deal Denver did.
That’s not even including the dead money the Jets ended up with in the deal. With that same new contract, Franklin-Myers’ cap hit in 2025 would have been $12.464 million, still roughly $5 million saved from his original $17.414 million cap hit. The Jets could have then chosen whether to keep him around at that cap number or release him for an additional $5 million in savings with roughly $7 million in dead cap (with more savings forwarded to 2025 if they designated the release as post-June 1).
It is very difficult to comprehend why the Jets didn’t make Franklin-Myers an identical offer. According to Joe Douglas, the Jets wanted to keep him around but were too far apart with him on compensation. Why were the Jets unwilling to offer such a deal?
This trade becomes harder to understand as time goes on.
