If other want Aaron Rodgers, why did the Jets cut him?

Not long ago, the Jets couldn't wait to get rid of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Now, up to three different teams could be trying to land him.

So why did the Jets cut him?

For starters, a trade would have wreaked havoc on the Jets' salary cap. Instead of splitting the cap charge between 2025 and 2026 (at $14 million and $35 million, respectively), the Jets would have taken the full $49 million this year.

And as to the $49 million in dead money that Rodgers leaves behind, some have misinterpreted that as money the Jets will pay Rodgers even though he's gone. That's not the case. The $49 million arises from money they've already paid, and that was pushed to future years for cap purposes.

If they'd kept him, the $49 million would have still hit the cap, with $14 million of it applying to 2025 and the rest landing in 2026 and possibly beyond. At some point, the Jets were going to take a major post-Rodgers cap charge. It would have happened if he was cut, if he quit, if he retired, or if he ended up being whisked away from the planet by a UFO that somehow avoided being shot down as part of a false flag operation aimed at distracting attention from other news.

The Jets have a new regime. Their new coach learned the ropes from Bill Parcells, who wanted team to trump any and all individuality. Rodgers doesn't fit that approach. He wants to do what he wants to do, whether it's appearing with Pat McAfee every Tuesday and saying whatever he wants to say or whether it's picking and choosing which offseason workouts he'll attend — if they don't conflict with his planned vacation(s) to Egypt or Peru or Arrakis.

That doesn't mean a new team won't delude itself into thinking he could Rodgers the difference. In Minnesota, where he reportedly wants to play, it's not hard to envision Rodgers sparking a Favre-style season that perhaps finishes one round on the playoff tree higher than the 2009 Vikings climbed.

It's also hard not to imagine the whole thing becoming a shit show, with the Vikings wasting an opportunity to develop J.J. McCarthy and selling their souls — again — to a former Packer whom they once despised.