There’s no doubt the New York Jets gained absolutely nothing from getting Tim Tebow from the Denver Broncos last year, but even after releasing him and watching him get signed by the New England Patriots, they’re still paying for their mistake; even more than his current team is.

Tebow was traded by Denver, along with a seventh round draft pick, to the New York Jets, who gave up a fourth round and sixth round picks for the polarizing quarterback. Rex Ryan didn’t want him, and to this day, it’s not quite clear who was the one on the Jets’ ship that really pushed for Tebow to join.

It ended up being a source of distraction for the entire team and especially Mark Sanchez, delivering the worst season of his career, while Tebow himself never got to start, took a few snaps here and there and was used in weird positions such as punt protector among other less confusing choices.

Tebow was released, and no one seemed interested. Even the CFL wasn’t really calling, unless it was for a backup job. And then came Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, saving Tebow and his NFL career, with a two year, $1.385 million contract with no guaranteed money on it.

How are the Jets still involved? According to Yahoo, they agreed to repay the Broncos for a portion of a $6,277,500 salary advance that Tebow had received from Denver in 2011, an amount totaling $2,531,875. The Jets paid $1 million in 2012 and will pay $1,531,875 back over the course of the 17-week 2013 regular season after failing to trade the quarterback’s contract to another club this offseason.

When they released him, the Jets basically ate the $1.5 million this season. Considering the Patriots are giving him $630,000, the league minimum, in 2013, and also including the fee he picked up during minicamp, the Jets will be spending at least $901,350 more in cash and cap space on Tebow this season than the Patriots will spend.

His cap charge for the 2014 season is $755,000, which means overall, the Jets will spend $140,000 more on him this season than the Patriots are scheduled to spend on Tebow over the next two seasons.

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