Jets pass-rusher Carl Lawson: ‘I’m a football player, not a cheerleader’
Defensive end Carl Lawson would be with the New York Jets “as long as he can walk,” coach Robert Saleh said during the offseason. But the former Auburn standout’s reduced playing time in 2023 and history of pass-rush production have tagged him as a candidate to be on the move with the NFL trade deadline approaching at 3 p.m. CDT Tuesday.
Lawson started every game and played 663 defensive snaps for the Jets last season. In 2023, he has played in four of New York’s six games and been on the field for 73 snaps.
Lawson doesn’t want to rock the boat, but he does want to play.
“I’ve always wanted to help the Jets win,” Lawson said on Thursday. “I’ve always wanted to be the best version of myself for the team. But at the end of the day, I do want to be a football player, I do want to produce and I do want to help, because I’m a football player, not a cheerleader, so that’s kind of where my head is at with that.”
Lawson appeared a likely salary-cap casualty in the offseason as he approached the final season of a three-year, $45 million contract. With none of his remaining money guaranteed, Lawson could have been cut and taken $15 million off New York’s 2023 obligations.
Saleh spoke out against that in April.
“You know, pass-rushers, they don’t grow on trees,” Saleh said, “and Carl has a commodity in this league that’s gold, so he will be here as long as he can walk and play and rush the passer and affect it the way he does. He’ll be here.”
Still, it took a contract adjustment for the Jets to keep Lawson. In May, Lawson signed a renegotiated one-year deal for $9.08 million that reduced his 2023 salary-cap number from $15.333 million to $3.013 million.
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Now it appears Lawson’s career in New York is at another crossroads.
“A lot of stuff is out there, and you kind of do what you want with it,” Lawson said about the trade deadline. “If stuff happens, it happens.”
