Given his propensity for injuries in recent years, you’d have thought the New York Jets might have wanted to protect themselves from the chance their star player got hurt during the 2023 NFL season.
They didn’t, and then he did, and now it sounds like the Jets are really paying for it.
According to Sportico, after the franchise signed Rodgers to a fully guaranteed $75 million deal during the offseason, they had the option to take out various insurance policies against the contract. However, they chose not to purchase any of them.
So when Rodgers went down with a torn Achilles in the first game of the season, that potentially cost them over $20 million that would have otherwise been covered by insurance.
The Green Bay Packers would routinely take out disability insurance policies on Rodgers when he was with the franchise, given how many injuries he suffered during his 19-year NFL career.
Per Sportico, the policies in question are called temporary total disability (TTD) policies and allow teams to get back significant portions of a player’s guaranteed salary if they suffer some kind of season-ending injury. The NBA and NHL require teams to insure their highest-paid players, but the NFL and MLB let teams make that decision for themselves.
The Jets have to be kicking themselves over their decision not to do so with Rodgers.
[Sportico]
