The Jets’ usual enemies are joined by new foes from the AFC West and NFC East
It’s said that there’s no place like home. The New York Jets will put that theory to the test next fall.
Gang Green’s 2023-24 slate was solidified on Sunday through the NFL’s Week 18 results. While it was well known who would occupy 14 of the 17 game day slots, Jets fans are no doubt already counting down the days to the next kickoff after several bastions of hope still failed to stop the team’s ongoing 12-year playoff drought … as well as another dubious streak of three consecutive last-place finishes in the AFC East.
A combination of odd-numbered season years giving AFC representatives an extra home game in the current 17-game set-up coinciding with the quadrennial regular season staging of the “Snoopy Bowl” (the unofficial moniker of the East Rutherford civil war between the Jets and New York Giants) gives the Jets 10 games at MetLife Stadium next season. Whether they’ll take advantage remains to be seen: New York was 3-5 at MetLife Stadium this season and has gone 7-18 at the establishment since posting a 5-3 mark in 2019.
“Wait ’till next year” has become a common mantra in Jets lore. So who lies on the road ahead?
- Jets 2023 home opponents: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Houston Texans, Atlanta Falcons
- Jets 2023 road opponents: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Cleveland Browns
Home: Buffalo, Miami, New England
If anything, the Jets were at least able to end their long-standing losing streaks against divisional competition this season. The losing streak against the Patriots continued but they did manage to best the Bills and Dolphins in their respective visits to New Jersey this year.
Away: Buffalo, Miami, New England
Even though the divisional losing streak ended, the Jets were winless on the road against the hated trio for the third consecutive season. Enough has been written about the Jets’ Foxboro futility (having failed to earn a regular season regulation victory at Gillette Stadium since 2006) but they’ve lost three in a row in Orchard Park and seven straight in South Beach after Sunday’s 11-6 slog.
Home: Atlanta
The Jets’ extra home game is generated from their fellow cellar-dwellers in the NFC South. While the Falcons have been frequent preseason opponents for the Jets, they haven’t visited a green MetLife Stadium since a 25-20 victory in 2017.
Away: Cleveland
With another showdown set-up up through matching last-place finishes, the Jets will return to the scene of one of their most thrilling 2022 mirages, when the Jets earned an improbable 31-30 victory through former Ohio State star Garrett Wilson’s 15-yard touchdown in the final minute, the latter of two scores over the final 82 seconds of game time to erase a late two-possession deficit.
Away: Dallas, NY Giants
The Jets have won three straight against America’s Team by a combined eight points, including a 2015 showdown that currently stands as their only visit to AT&T Stadium. They’ve also won two in a row against their East Rutherford roommates since the Christmas Eve nightmare in 2011, the former victory being an overtime thriller during that same Ryan Fitzpatrick-led campaign.
Away: Denver, Las Vegas
Is revenge in the cards in Sin City? Almost immediately after the Raiders benched Derek Carr, amateur and professional prognosticators alike put him in a Jets uniform.
Though Lamarcus Joyner got to enjoy it for a year, this will mark the Jets’ first-ever visit to Las Vegas and the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium pad. Meanwhile, the Broncos are nothing new to the Jets, as they’ll now meet for the fourth consecutive season. Denver, who will host for the third consecutive occasion, took the first two meetings but the Jets prevailed in a 16-9 decision last October.
Home: Houston
An appropriate theme for the Texans’ first visit to a green Garden State since 2018 might be gratitude: Houston football currently serves as a reminder to Jets fans and the rest of the league that it can always be worse, evidenced by the fact that the team is set to hire its third different head coach in as many consecutive offseasons.
Home: Kansas City, LA Chargers
The Jets’ 12-year run of futility has gone so wrong to the point they can’t even get their opponents right. Patrick Mahomes has yet to tear up the MetLife Stadium turf against the Jets, as the Chiefs’ last visit came during the final year of the Alex Smith era (2017). New York’s AFC West docket also features the Chargers, who have taken home each of the coast war’s last four stagings dating back to 2012.
Home: Philadelphia, Washington
The Jets will get another chance to end one of the quieter displays of franchise futility, having dropped each of their dozen meetings against the Eagles, who could well enter as the defending Super Bowl champions. Things have been a bit smoother against Washington, who has had more nicknames over the last 12 years than they do wins against the Jets (0-3 since December 2011).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
