According to Field Yates, the Jets have reworked DE Carl Lawson‘s contract to lower his salary for the 2023 season.
Lawson was due $15 million but agreed to a new deal with a base value of $9 million, $8 million of which is guaranteed. He can make back another $3 million via incentives.
The deal saves the Jets $12.7 million in cap space, likely by turning most of the remainder of his deal into a signing bonus and adding void years.
While the team values Lawson’s pass rush potential and wanted to make sure to keep him on the roster, the veteran had come up as a potential cap cut because of the Jets’ need for cap space for other moves so far this offseason. Lawson also apparently valued being in New York enough to agree to reduce his salary.
Lawson will be an unrestricted free agent in 2024.
Lawson, 27, is a former fourth-round pick of the Bengals back in 2017. He played out the final year of his four-year, $3.05 million contract and was testing the open market for the first time in his NFL career when he signed a three-year, $45 million deal with the Jets in 2021.
He was entering the final year of that deal and set to make a base salary of $15 million in 2023.
In 2022, Lawson appeared in all 17 games for the Jets and recorded 33 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, seven sacks, one forced fumble and one recovery.
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