Jets can quietly open $30 million in cap space without cutting a single player

The New York Jets are set to enter yet another pivotal offseason for the organization in 2026. Head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey know that they need to win games this season to save their jobs, which is why many expect the team to be very active in free agency.

Glenn and Mougey took a very passive approach to the open market a year ago, signing just two players — Justin Fields and Brandon Stephens — to multi-year contracts. Expect things to be different this time around.

The Jets are already projected to have nearly $75 million in cap space following the NFL’s salary cap announcement on Friday, according to Over the Cap, and that figure could climb even higher with a few roster cuts.

However, there are always other ways to manipulate the salary cap. The Jets could theoretically create as much as $30 million in additional cap flexibility through restructures as well.

Restructuring NFL contracts can create immediate cap relief by pushing money into future years, which would allow the Jets to be even more aggressive in the short term. The risk is that it often leads to bloated future cap hits and dead money, limiting flexibility and forcing difficult roster decisions.

It's a move for the now, not the future.

How the Jets can create nearly $30 million through restructured contracts this offseason

There are only a few players who stand out as feasible restructure candidates, and really only one or two of them make any degree of sense for the Jets. In fact, the easiest restructure candidate on the list is actually Fields.

The Jets could create over $15 million in cap space by restructuring his contract this offseason. That seems highly unlikely, though, especially given that, by all accounts, the Jets are expected to release him in the coming weeks.

A restructure would simply push dead money to the future and allow the team to keep Fields on their roster for a lower 2026 cost. Don't expect the Jets to go that route.

More realistic restructure candidates include the likes of Stephens and linebacker Jamien Sherwood. The Jets could free up $8.22 million in cap space by restructuring Stephens’ contract and another $5.028 million by doing the same with Sherwood.

Finally, the Jets could even look to restructure the contract of Garrett Wilson, who just signed a four-year, $130 million extension with the team last summer, although doing so would only create roughly $1.688 in cap space.

Ultimately, the Jets are in a position where they do not need to rely on contract restructures to create cap space. Unless Mougey and Glenn decide to go all-in on 2026 in a win-now gamble at the expense of future flexibility, the smarter path is likely to use the cap space already available.

But the option is always there if they want to be even more aggressive.