2024 has been a disappointing year for many Jets players, veteran linebacker C.J. Mosley among them. Mosley recently landed on injured reserve, thus ending his season after just four games played, and our Adam La Rose speculated that the 32-year-old defender could become a cap casualty in the coming months. Today, ESPN’s Rich Cimini reported that Mosley is indeed expected to be released this offseason.
Mosley, who was selected by the Ravens in the first round of the 2014 draft, earned Pro Bowl acclaim in four of his five seasons in Baltimore, setting himself up for a lucrative payday after he played out the fifth-year option of his rookie deal in 2018. He signed a five-year, $85MM contract with the Jets in March 2019, which shattered the then-record for inside linebackers and which felt like an overpay at the time, even when taking his Pro Bowl accolades into account.
Indeed, authorizing Mosley’s contract was one of then-GM Mike Maccagnan’s final acts at the helm of the Jets’ front office, as he was fired in May 2019 and replaced by Joe Douglas a month later. Gang Green felt the financial burden of Mosley’s deal even more acutely when the Alabama product played in just two games of the 2019 season due to injury and exercised his COVID opt-out for 2020.
However, he settled in nicely over the following three seasons, averaging nearly 160 tackles per year and earning another Pro Bowl nod in 2022. Last season, the advanced metrics finally placed him among the ranks of the game’s elite middle linebackers, as Pro Football Focus assigned him an 82.9 overall grade that was good for the sixth-highest mark out of 82 qualified players.
This offseason, Mosley – who was originally slated to be a free agent after the current campaign – agreed to a brief extension that keeps him under club control through 2025. By signing that deal, Mosley agreed to a pay cut in exchange for additional guarantees, though just over half of his $8.25MM salary for 2025 is guaranteed. In order to minimize Mosley’s cap hit in 2024, when the Jets were fully expecting to contend, the club tacked on three void years, which means that it will be taking on $16.4MM in dead money if it follows through with a 2025 release.
Nonetheless, New York could still save money against the cap by designating Mosley a post-June 1 cut and spreading the dead money tab over two years. The team will also be led by a new GM, who will likely not be too worried about incurring dead money generated by the Douglas regime.
The defense wasn’t the same without him, but he’s not magically going to get younger and healthier.
Eh, this year it didnt really matter if he was out there or not. Regardless of how this season went as far as overall team success i didnt see him coming back due to age/contract/health
Agreed. The Jets are looking to rebuild instead of trying one more time with this set-up, so this makes sense. Losing the first two years of Mosely’s contract sucked for them, but he at least lived up to the deal for the rest of it. I’d say it overall bore out as a good move, despite the early hiccups. At this point, though, Mosely is firmly in the veteran short term deal with a contender stage of his career.
Im hoping all we really rebuild is the defense. The offense has the tools, just needs the coach to really put it together. Defense is lost. Too many penalties and theyre soft. Did good against the run today though
In a normal situation, they could keep the roster as is and add a few much needed pieces at tight end, o-line (especially tackle), edge rush (across from McDonald), and a some more reinforcements at other spots pieces across the board. The biggest spot, obviously, is kicker. I honestly think that the defense has it personnel wise; I think that it’s an effort and environment thing.
However, this is not normal. Johnson’s meddling has really cratered the culture in New York and exacerbated whatever existing problems were there to the extreme. As long as he’s there, which he will be, it feels inevitable that New York will fully rebuild to try and rinse out last season. It’s unfortunate, because roster-wise, they weren’t that bad until Saleh was fired.
7 losses by 6 or less … blown 4th-quarter lead in 5 of those losses … and it cascaded when Woody Johnson decided to go all Robert Irsay.