Yet another last-place finish for the New York Jets.
No, not in the standings, but in salary cap carryover.
Per Over the Cap, the Jets will carry over just $345,919 in 2024 salary cap space to the 2025 season, the lowest in the NFL. Meanwhile, the 49ers top the salary cap carryover list with $50.1 million.
Whatever salary cap space a team has left over at the end of one season carries over to the next season. All teams will have some space left to remain cap-compliant, but the amount of leftover cap can vary tremendously.
It’s worth noting that NFL teams are required to spend 89% of their allotted cap space over a four-year period, so a team that has a large amount of cap carryover in one season will not necessarily have it the next year.
Furthermore, having a large amount of available cap space is not always the sole indicator of cap health. In the 49ers’ case, they restructured a bunch of players’ contracts in advance of an upcoming cap crunch in 2025. That means they pushed more money into the future, which is just kicking the can down the road.
With Brock Purdy’s almost certainly impending contract extension, San Francisco will likely find itself in a cap bind sooner rather than later even as their best players age.
Still, the Jets’ lack of salary cap carryover further highlights how big their 2024 failure was. They truly cast all their chips in the middle of the table and came up empty.
That was with restructuring a bunch of contracts and adding void years to free-agent contracts to free up 2024 cap space. Davante Adams, C.J. Mosley, Tyrod Taylor, John Simpson, Tyler Conklin, Greg Zuerlein, D.J. Reed, Javon Kinlaw, Michael Carter II, Haason Reddick, Mike Williams, and Tyron Smith all had void years added to their contracts in some capacity (either via signing, extension, or restructure). There were many others in 2023, as well.
All in all, the Jets’ cap situation going forward is very tight for a team in flux.
According to Over the Cap, part of the lack of carryover was that the Jets used 2024 cap space to pre-pay some incentives that would have otherwise been charged to their 2025 cap. The method they used doesn’t make a difference, though; had they not prepaid the incentives, they would carry over more cap space that would then be canceled out by the incentive charges in 2025.
Here are the incentives the Jets paid out, to the best of my knowledge (from available Spotrac data), totaling $7.67 million.
- Tyron Smith: $2.75 million for 50% playing time
- Haason Reddick: $791,628 for 40% playing time from Weeks 8-18
- Tyler Conklin: $250,000 for 50 catches
- John Simpson: $3 million for 90% playing time and the Jets improving their ranking in points scored from 29th in 2023 to 24th in 2024
- Javon Kinlaw: $500,000 for 60% playing time + $250,000 for 4+ sacks
- Isaiah Oliver: $125,000 for 50% playing time
- Chuck Clark: $250,000 for 50% playing time
I am not sure if this cap carryover includes payouts from contract insurance for expensive players’ contracts in the event of injury. Many players with big contracts missed significant playing time this season, and if their teams have contract insurance, they could recoup significant cap space as a cap credit next season.
Per Over the Cap, the Jets currently have an estimated $20.95 million in 2025 cap space free. They could open up some more space with releases, but they also have a significant number of voiding contracts which will lead to dead cap charges.
The Jets will likely have another modest free-agent period this season due to a cap crunch. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for an organization trying to reset once more.
