The New York Jets reportedly made a monster move Friday to create nearly $12 million in salary cap space for the 2022 NFL season by restructuring C.J. Mosley’s contract.
Per Field Yates of ESPN, the Jets converted nearly $15 million of the linebacker’s contract to a signing bonus and added two void years to the contract. That led to this whopping savings against the cap this season:
The Jets have converted $14.88M of LB C.J. Mosley’s base salary into a signing bonus (while adding two void years), creating $11.904M in 2022 cap space, per source.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 2, 2022
The Jets entered Labor Day weekend more than $4 million over the NFL salary cap, per Spotrac. Their cap situation was the worst in the league until the restructuring of Mosley’s contract:
Mosley’s $16M base was fully guaranteed, so it’s not like he’s losing money. He just gets a big chunk in the form of signing bonus, which gets prorated over 5 years. Standard NFL bookkeeping.
Downside: His ‘23 cap charge balloons to $21.5M from $18.5M. #Jets
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) September 2, 2022
Mosley signed a five-year, $85 million contract with the Jets in 2019. Because he did not play in 2020 due to concerns about the coronavirus, Mosley’s contract was extended through the 2024 season.
Article Continues BelowThe 30-year-old returned to play last season and had an NFL career-high 168 tackles. Though he somehow was not selected to play in the Pro Bowl last season, Mosely appeared in the Pro Bowl four times as a member of the Baltimore Ravens (2014, 2016-18).
The Jets ran into cap trouble when they signed tackle Duane Brown for two years and $20 million a few weeks ago. Brown was signed to replace Mekhi Becton ($4.611 million cap hit) when Becton sustained a season-ending knee injury early in training camp.
New York added several other free agents in the offseason, including guard Laken Tomlinson (three years, $40 million), corner D.J. Reed (three years, $33 million), tight end C.J. Uzomah (three years, $24 million), tight end Tyler Conklin (three years, $20.25 million) and safety Jordan Whitehead (two years, $14.5 million).
They also had three first-round picks in the 2022 NFL Draft (Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Jermaine Johnson), so their slotted contracts pushed New York’s cap higher, too.