The Ryan Fitzpatrick Era with the Jets is officially over.
Fitzpatrick’s contract automatically voided Friday, five days after the Super Bowl, making him a free agent. Neither the Jets nor Fitzpatrick had to do anything to trigger the void. It simply happened automatically, as part of the contract’s language.
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After a disastrous 2016 season, there is no way Fitzpatrick re-signs with the Jets and returns in 2017. He’ll probably wind up being a backup somewhere, if he wants to continue playing in the NFL. At this point in his career, at age 34, a backup job is his best option.
But just because Fitzpatrick is a goner, that doesn’t mean the Jets are completely finished with him. Their 2017 salary cap will have to carry a $5 million dead money figure from Fitzpatrick’s contract. The NFL’s cap this year is expected to be $168 million, so that’s 3 percent of the Jets’ cap — not a major dent, but one they’d surely prefer not to have.
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After a 2016 summer of hand-wringing over Fitzpatrick’s status, he re-signed with the Jets as training camp began. It was essentially (but not officially) a one-year, $12 million contract, with all of the money fully guaranteed. Fitzpatrick got every penny of that $12 million.
Of the $12 million, $10 million was a signing bonus. For cap accounting purposes, Fitzpatrick’s deal technically had a term of two years, with a “fake/dummy” non-guaranteed base salary of $2 million in 2017. That’s how the Jets avoided restructuring other players’ contracts in order to fit Fitzpatrick under their 2016 cap. They spread the $10 million over two years.
The Jets took on a $7 million cap hit in 2016 (Fitzpatrick’s $2 million base salary plus half of his signing bonus proration). Their $5 million cap hit for 2017 is the other half of the proration.
Even if Fitzpatrick excelled last season and re-signed with the Jets for 2017, after his contract voided this week, his $5 million dead money salary cap figure would’ve remained on the Jets’ books in 2017, as a cap hit.
But Fitzpatrick obviously did not excel. Far from it. He declined significantly from 2015.
That year, he started every game for the Jets, in his first season with them. They went 10-6, and Fitzpatrick threw 31 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, and had an 88.0 quarterback rating.
Then came 2016, when the Jets finished 5-11. Fitzpatrick played in 14 games (11 starts), was benched twice, threw 12 touchdowns and 17 interceptions, and had a 69.6 rating.
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Statistically, Fitzpatrick was the NFL’s worst quarterback last season. He had the lowest rating, second-lowest completion percentage (56.6), and highest interception percentage (4.2).
Fitzpatrick acknowledged his reality near the end of the season — that he would not return to the Jets in 2017. Now, it is official.
Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.
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