Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets have no intention of playing DL Muhammad Wilkerson in Sunday’s game against the Chargers.
According to Mehta, the Jets have actually been working through the legalities of not playing Wilkerson as they related to the collective bargaining agreement.
Mehta writes that the Jets would be “reckless” to play Wilkerson over the final two weeks, given that an injury would impact his contract and salary next year, as he has $16.75 million guaranteed for injury.
People within the Jets reportedly want the situation with Wilkerson to just be over, according to Mehta.
People familiar with the situation tell Mehta that they want Wilkerson banned from the team facility.
Wilkerson, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Jets back in 2011. He played out his rookie contract with the team and was in line to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason before the Jets used their franchise tag on him last year.
The Jets surprisingly locked him up to a five-year, $86 million contract that included $53.5 million guaranteed just before the deadline. Wilkerson stands to make base salaries of $14.75 million and $16.75 million over the next two years of the agreement.
According to OverTheCap.com, releasing Wilkerson next year would free up $11 million of available cap space while creating $9 million in dead money. However, the Jets could improve those figures to $17 million of cap room and just $3 million of dead money by designating him as a post-June 1 release.
In 2017, Wilkerson has appeared in 13 games for the Jets and recorded 46 tackles, 3.5 sacks, an interception, and four pass defenses. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 52 interior defender out of 117 qualifying players.
We’ll have more regarding Wilkerson’s future with the Jets as the news is available.
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