NFL free agency is set to start on Monday as the legal tampering period opens. The Jets will be looking for help at the quarterback position. It may come as a surprise, but some of the biggest names available will come with a small price tag.
Kyler Murray, Tua Tagovailoa, and Geno Smith are among the quarterbacks set to hit free agency. All three are being released by their respective teams. The trio will likely sign for a new team for the league minimum. To understand why, we need to discuss what
offsets are and why they matter.
Despite their imminent releases, Murray, Tagovailoa, and Smith all have a lot of guaranteed money in their 2026 contracts. That means their current teams will still need to pay their salaries after they are cut. Reports also indicate their contracts include offsets.
What is an offset?
It reduces the amount a team has to pay a released player after he signs with a new team.
When Murray signs a new with a new team, he will not make additional money on top of the salary the Cardinals are paying him. Every dollar he receives from his new team is one less dollar Arizona is required to pay him. His new salary reduces Arizona’s obligation.
The same is true of Tagovailoa and Smith (assuming reports about their contracts including offsets are accurate).
Offsets are commonly put into big money deals.
The inclusion of offsets changes the calculus of the contracts these quarterbacks will receive in free agency. Since Murray, Tagovailoa, and Smith won’t make more money on a new contract, they are incentivized to seek league minimum deals. Why saddle your new team with a bigger cap hit than necessary when you’re making the same amount of money either way?
On one hand, this could be a benefit to the Jets. Suddenly these quarterbacks will become inexpensive to acquire. Getting Kyler Murray at the league minimum is very different from trading a Draft pick for Murray and taking on a contract that guarantees him $60 million.
On the flip side, it could make landing one of these quarterbacks a bigger challenge. The Jets are entering the offseason among the league leaders in salary cap space. If these quarterbacks are signing for the league minimum, the Jets can’t outbid the opposition like they would be able to for most players. The pick will come down to other factors like situation and fit where the Jets will likely be a tougher sell. (And yes, I know these quarterbacks have enough flaws that the Jets would be justified lacking interest in them.)
To be clear, I’m not necessarily saying the Jets will be interested in all of these quarterbacks. I only wanted to note the dynamics here because they are a tad unusual and could come into play in the event the Jets are interested.
