Unofficially, the Ryan Fitzpatrick Era ended for the Jets on New Year’s Day, after the last game of their 2016 season.
On Friday, the end to Fitzpatrick’s two-year reign as the Jets starting quarterback became a lot more official as his contract was automatically voided, per the scheduled clause that called for this action five days after the Super Bowl.
The chances of the 34-year-old Fitzpatrick re-signing with the Jets are virtually nil, meaning he will try to hook on with another team, likely as a backup, or retire.
After becoming the Jets’ most important player in 2015, when he helped lead them to a 10-6 finish while throwing a franchise-record 31 touchdown passes, Fitzpatrick engaged in a prolonged, distracting contract negotiation last offseason that didn’t end until just before training camp.
He went on to have a miserable season, following up his 88.0 quarterback rating in 2015 with an NFL-worst 69.6 in 2016. In 14 games, including 11 starts, Fitzpatrick was benched twice, and he threw just 12 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.
Fitzpatrick’s parting gift to the Jets is the $5 million in dead money they will carry on the 2017 salary cap because of the structure of the $12 million contract he signed to play in 2016. 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. They spread the $10 million signing bonus over two years to fit Fitzpatrick under their 2016 cap and avoid restructuring other players’ contracts.
Fitzpatrick turned down a three-year, $24 million deal with $16 million in guarantees last offseason, so he ended up costing himself at least $4 million. So, after much promise from 2015, the 2016 season ended up being a lose-lose for the Jets and Fitzpatrick.
With both Fitzpatrick and Geno Smith free agents, the Jets now have two quarterbacks under contract — Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg — and both are severely lacking in NFL experience.
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