$33 Million Jets Free Agent Guarantees He’s Hitting Free Agency

Heavy on Jets

One upcoming New York Jets free agent has guaranteed he is going to hit the open market.

Veteran cornerback D.J. Reed told ESPN’s Rich Cimini, “I definitely want to go into free agency, and it’s not because I don’t want to be a New York Jet. I definitely want to be a New York Jet, but I feel like they had the whole offseason, and even throughout the season, to extend it, and they didn’t. I feel like for me, personally, it would be best to go into free agency and see what’s out there.”

Cimini added that Reed is expected to have multiple suitors, “considering his reputation as a solid cover corner with scheme versatility.”

Reed is Expected to Receive The Bag on The Open Market

Back in November, ESPN took an early look at the upcoming 2025 free agency class and ranked them. Reed was ranked as the No. 4 overall best free agent on the board and the top cornerback that is expected to be available.

ESPN NFL Insider Jeremy Fowler said Reed’s “market will be robust.”

He is in the last year of a $33 million contract that included only $10.5 million in total guarantees.

The folks over at Pro Football Focus compared Reed to Malcolm Butler who hit free agency in 2018. Butler signed a five-year deal for $61 million with $30 million guaranteed.

That is a lot of money but that was six years ago – the money for cornerbacks has only grown higher since then. In other words, Reed could be in for a historic payday.

“Reed is poised to enter free agency at an ideal moment, as he’s on track for a career year. His 75.1 coverage grade ranks 14th among players at his position this season. He’s also excelled in PFF’s advanced metrics, boasting a 52.26% lockdown percentage,” PFF added.

Jets Are Going to Lose Reed

It’s nice to hear Reed say that he wants to remain a member of the Jets if he had his druthers. However, you can also hear his tone that the Jets not attempting to re-sign him before we reached this point is something he has taken into consideration.

Right now the Jets don’t have a head coach or a general manager. So it’s impossible to know if whoever those people are would want Reed back. The only option they have available to prevent Reed from hitting free agency is using the franchise tag.

According to Over The Cap, the projected franchise tag number for a cornerback in 2025 is $20.35 million fully guaranteed. The moment the Jets slapped the tag on Reed all of that money would come out of their available cap space restricting what moves they could make this offseason.

The Jets have $32.9 million available in cap space before making any moves this offseason, per Over The Cap. That ranks No. 19 in the NFL in most cap space available. It’s hard to envision the Jets using 61% of their available cap space on one player considering all of their other needs.

Reed, 28, is a player who is set to cash in big maybe for the last time in his NFL career. The uncomfortable truth is Reed isn’t long for the Jets. He is going to get a big bag of money from someone and it won’t be the green and white.

Reed will go down as one of the best Jets free-agent acquisitions in team history. He was a wildly productive player who was much better during his Jets tenure than before it.