The Jets and Ravens have agreed to a trade according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter:
Trade: Jets agreed to send a 2024 seventh-round pick to the Ravens in exchange for safety Chuck Clark, per league sources. Trade is agreed to, but cannot be processed until new league year begins Wednesday.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 9, 2023
The Ravens were likely going to release Clark who started 17 games for them last season, as a salary cap casualty. Basically the Jets will bypass the free agent process by throwing the Ravens a late draft pick to make the trade. Because Clark has some salary guaranteed the Ravens will also create a small amount of additional cap room by trading Clark rather than cutting him. The Ravens will have $2.628 million in dead money for Clark and will free up $4.14 million in cap room. The Jets will take on $4.14 million in charges once they make the trade official.
This could be an indication that the Jets would consider moving on from safety Jordan Whitehead, who was signed last year to a two year, $14.5 million contract. Whitehead’s cap charge this year is $10.23 million and his release or trade would save the Jets $7.25 million in cap room. Whitehead has no guarantees for 2023 so there is no reason for the Jets to rush into any decision with him.
While trades are not official until the start of the new league year, we will process this trade today simply to avoid the confusion that seems to occur every year with these type of moves.