The New York Jets have a lot of young talent on the team thanks to one of the best drafts in team history. The only problem with having all that talent come from one phenomenal draft, is they all need to get paid at the same time. Luckily for Darren Mougey, some help in that department is just a few short days away.

Going into this offseason, the New York Jets had some very expensive veterans on the payroll which Mougey and Aaron Glenn were all too eager to release in favor of getting younger. Two of those veterans were quarterback Aaron Rodgers and linebacker C.J. Mosley, both of whom were designated post June 1^st cuts.

That means that although the team announced their release in March, the two players carried a combined $36.3 million on the salary cap. On June 2, that number drops to $13.5 million, creating about $22.8 million in additional space, making the Jets one of the leaders in cap room.

That financial flexibility might be the missing piece for Darren Mougey to get some long-term extensions done with the young players on the team that are due for a new deal. The Jets announced earlier this offseason that they were picking up the fifth-year options on Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Jermaine Johnson, all three first-round picks from the 2021 NFL Draft. Breece Hall was also selected in that draft, but because he was a second-round pick, he is not eligible for a fifth-year option.

Garrett Wilson recently said he wanted to be “a Jet for life” and was open to signing an extension to stay with the team. He said there have been discussions, and things were progressing nicely. My feeling is that the Jets and Wilson likely already have a handshake agreement in place and the Jets are just waiting for the influx of cap room on June 2 to get the deal signed.

The other priority has to be Sauce Gardner. Sauce has already been a two-time first-team All-Pro through the first three seasons of his career. The problem for Sauce is the cornerback market was just reset twice this offseason with Jaycee Horn getting $20 million per season and then Derek Stingley getting $25 million per season. I imagine a new regime will have a hard time resetting the market again with a player who was a favorite of the old regime. Especially, this new regime.

Jermaine Johnson is an interesting case because he is coming off the season ending achilles injury and will likely have to wait for the others to sign to see what the Jets can afford.

Breece Hall is the Jets top running back and one of the best in the game, but the emergence last year of Braelon Allen as well as the late surge from Isaiah Davis might give the Jets too much leverage to pay Breece what he is worth.

Another player who might be hoping for a long-term deal with the team’s newly found cap space is guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, who is entering his fifth-year option season in 2025. AVT will be a free agent after this season unless the Jets sign him to a contract or use the franchise tag on him.

In the end, I imagine a deal will get done with Garrett Wilson and possibly Sauce Gardner in the next few weeks. Jermaine Johnson will have a year to prove he is healthy, and the Jets will talk extension with him next season. Either Breece and AVT are likely to franchised next season and the other may walk in free agency. I would rather see the Jets keep Breece than AVT considering the injury history, but a lot can happen in a new year with a new regime.