Late last night, Field Yates of ESPN reported that the New York Jets restructured John Franklin-Myers’ contract. The move created $4.8 million in cap space for the Jets.
New York Jets rework yet another contract, now with John Franklin-Myers:
This is the fifth contract that the Jets have done some tinkering to in six days. Between Franklin-Myers, CJ Uzomah, DJ Reed, Laken Tomlinson, and Tyler Conklin, the Jets have created $23.6 million in cap space. Franklin-Myers, for many reasons, was always one of the most logical players for the Jets to create cap space with.
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Franklin-Myers has been a very good player for three straight years now for the Jets. He is still a young player at 26 years old who looks to be with the Jets for the future, as he is under contract for another three years, through 2025. With three years remaining, his prorated bonus amount would not increase too drastically with a restructure. Lastly, his prorated bonus, prior to this, of $400K was incredibly low, making it extremely feasible for the Jets to execute this re-done deal.
Before this restructure, Franklin-Myers was owed $12 million ($11.4M base, $600K bonus) for 2023. With his low prorated bonus ($400K), his cap hit was set to be $12.4 million.
With this new deal, the Jets converted $6 million of the $11.4 in his base salary into a signing bonus. The Jets also added on two void years (2026 and 2027), which lowers his prorated bonus to help out the Jets up front. As a result, Franklin-Myers’ prorated bonus is now $1.6 million, still very low.
Franklin-Myers’ salaries for 2024 and 2025 remain the same, but here are his new cap numbers.
- 2023: $7.6 million
- 2024: $15.5 million
- 2025: $16.6 million
- 2026: $2.4 million (void year)
His cap charges for 2024 and 2025 still only increased by $1.2 million. However, his dead money amounts (with the void years) increased. In 2024, Franklin-Myers has a dead money amount (pre-June 1st) of $5.6 million now and, in 2025, $4 million. As noted above, though, Franklin-Myers’ young age and strong play for three consecutive years make him someone worth raising dead money amounts on, as he will likely be with the team anyway.
Franklin-Myers always made a ton of sense for the Jets to approach about a re-done contract. The Jets did a good job of lowering his cap hit now and not increasing it too much over the next two years of his deal with the void years.