New York Jets can trim some fat off the roster this offseason

The New York Jets were a bad 7-9 football team and now it’s time to trim some fat off the roster. Here’s how Gang Green can save some big cash in 2020.

For the ninth straight year, the New York Jets are not in the postseason. If the team wants to flip the script in 2020 they’ll have to make some big changes.

Right now the green and white are hovering around $60 million in cap space heading into the offseason. Although they have a chance to create some more green by trimming some of the fat on the roster.

There are several obvious cap casualties that the team will say goodbye to this offseason to create some more cap flexibility.

Trumaine Johnson, cornerback

This will be the easiest decision the New York Jets make this offseason. Trumaine is easily the worst free-agent signing in team history and it’s time to move on.

The Jets will only save $3 million by moving on from their free-agent bust, but he’s become such a cancer that it would be in the best interest of the team to sever ties and move on. Sadly the team will have to eat $12 million in dead money.

Brian Winters, guard

The offensive line was a wreck in 2019 and while Brian Winters isn’t the worst offensive lineman in the world, it’s likely time to move on. He has one year left on his deal for $7.2 million and if the Jets release him they can save the entire charge off the cap with no dead money.

In his entire seven-year career with the Jets, he’s only started an entire season once (2018). Winters has missed 23 games in his career and while his toughness should earn the respect of Jets fans, it shouldn’t necessarily warrant another year with the team.

After those two players, things get a bit more difficult for the New York Jets. 

Avery Williamson, linebacker

The next likely candidate is linebacker Avery Williamson. Sadly New York Jets fans never got to see what a linebacking core of CJ Mosley and Avery Williamson could look like and there’s a chance they’ll never get to see it.

The team could save $6.5 million if they released him and they would have to eat $2 million in dead cap.

Williamson has been an entertaining follow on Twitter since his injury, but the team discovered a large amount of untapped depth at linebacker this season due to injury.

Although an interesting nugget from ESPN’s Rich Cimini revealed that the Jets were actually shopping Williamson during the preseason last year prior to his injury.

Quincy Enunwa, wide receiver

New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas spoke at the season-ending presser and said that the team expects Quincy Enunwa to return in 2020. Although if the team changes their mind they could save $2.4 million but would have to eat $5.4 million in dead cap.

Although the Jets could try to make things messy if Enunwa chooses to retire, which is a very legitimate possibility with his history of neck injuries. They could try to save the entire charge, but that’s a wait and see game.

Darryl Roberts, cornerback

The last player up for consideration is veteran cornerback Darryl Roberts. He’s got a $5.8 million cap charge and the team could save all of it by releasing him with no dead cap.

Although before the New York Jets pull the trigger on any of these cuts, they have to think long and hard about who the replacement player will be for the players they cut.

Entering this offseason the Jets have plenty of holes to fill on the roster, if they cut any of these players they’ll have some additional roster holes to fill. If the Jets made all of these cuts they could have as much as $85 million in cap space.