Salary Cap: Minor moves leave the Jets in a position of strength

With the increasingly insignificant June 1st deadline now behind us, we can now reassess where the Jets stand in terms of their salary cap position.

The Jets' had around $25.7 million of cap space when we did our last cap update but have made a few minor moves since then. The NFLPA database currently has them at $26,560,856.

The main move they made that affected their cap space was the restructuring of Alex Lewis' contract, which created cap space of around $2 million. Lewis, who will now be a free agent at the end of this season instead of next season, had his salary virtually halved to $3 million but the Jets agreed to guarantee $1 million of it and also tacked on $600K in playing time incentives.

The Jets have also signed three former 49ers free agents - Austin Walter, Ronald Blair and Matt Cole - but in each case they got a minimum salary deal so the cap impact of these moves is negligible. Blair will receive a minimum salary benefit so that only $850K of his $990K salary needs to be accounted for against the cap. The re-signed Daniel Brown also got a minimum salary benefit deal but he had $50K of roster bonus on top of his salary so he will get $1.04 million of which $900K will count against the cap.

All of the corresponding cuts were also minimum salary players so that won't affect the salary cap much. However, one player - Saquan Hampton - was added to the PUP list, so the Jets will be on the hook for about half of his salary ($440K) and that eats into the savings from the Lewis deal.

The Jets have also made good progress with signing their rookies, announcing that Ace Carter signed on Friday, which means they've now done all the deals for the day three selections. Again, though, these have minimal effect on the salary cap because it's the contracts in the earlier rounds which use up the most cap space.

When the Jets sign Zach Wilson, Elijah Moore and Alijah Vera-Tucker, this will use up around $8 million of cap space. Most of this relates to Wilson. The effect of completing Moore's deal will use up less than a million of cap space and Vera-Tuckers will use up about $2 million.

Other cap-affecting matters to watch between now and camp include the ongoing possibility of a long-term deal with Marcus Maye which would probably create additional cap room in 2021 and a restructure of Jamison Crowder's deal which could do likewise.

Finally, of course, the Jets may be waiting until camp to decide on whether or not to make any veteran cuts. You'll recall they cut Brian Winters early on in camp last year, but opted to retain Avery Williamson, instead of trading him during the season.