Jets release Muhammad Wilkerson in salary-cap move

INDIANAPOLIS — The Jets were calling it a business decision Wednesday, and it had been made way before then.

The Jets cut their highest-paid player, sending defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson packing after a season filled with poor play, injuries and a suspension.

Wilkerson was suspended for a Week 15 game at New Orleans for being late to a meeting and was inactive for the final two weeks of the regular season.

“Mo’s was a business decision,” Todd Bowles said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “It wasn’t disciplinary at all. It was a business decision that we made. We felt it was good for both parties and we made that decision.”

The Jets had until March 16 to release Wilkerson or they would have been on the hook for a $16.7-million base salary. Now they will save $11 million against their salary cap, pushing their cap space to a projected $90 million, among the highest in the NFL, as they enter free agency.

Wilkerson would have gone into the season with a $20-million cap figure, the highest on the team. The Jets, after failing to find a trade partner, decided that renegotiating his contract wasn’t worth it.

“The most important thing is the team,” Bowles said. “I’m disappointed for the team. I’m disappointed for [Wilkerson]. It didn’t work out, but I have a lot of love for Mo. I think he’s still got a lot of football ahead of him. I just wish him the best.”

A 2011 first-round pick from Temple, Wilkerson totaled 28.5 sacks from 2013-15. He was named to the Pro Bowl after the 2015 season, when he had a career-high 12 sacks. At the end of that season, Wilkerson suffered a broken leg, but the Jets, based on his play that year and his potential, signed him to a five-year, $86-million deal, with $37 million in guarantees in the first two years. In the next two seasons, Wilkerson had only eight sacks, suffered shoulder and toe injuries, and had discipline problems.

Lateness was the biggest issue for Wilkerson, who was benched in each of the last three seasons for being tardy for a team meeting. In 2016, he embarrassed the organization when he failed to show up for a meeting when the team planned on giving him a birthday cake afterward.

Last season was probably Wilkerson’s most disappointing. He didn’t record a quarterback hit until Week 7 and had no sacks until Week 8. He had 3 ½ sacks, the lowest since his rookie season (three), and a career-low 46 tackles.

This past season, he was late to a team meeting prior to the Saints game, which prompted Bowles to suspend him. The Jets kept Wilkerson on the practice field the next two weeks but he didn’t play for the rest of the season, with the official explanation that he was inactive because of a “coach’s decision.” In truth, the Jets had moved on, and if Wilkerson had gotten hurt the last two weeks of the season, his 2018 salary would have been guaranteed.

Wilkerson finished his Jets career with 44.5 sacks, 243 tackles and 11 forced fumbles.

“I think when you sign a player, you think of the potential he has and hopefully help him fulfill that,” general manager Mike Maccagnan said. “When something doesn’t work out, you wish it would have but it didn’t. It kind of comes down when you think back on the contract, and how he played in 2015, and it ends up being a bit of a business decision, and with contracts of that size there are expectations of performance.”