The NFL is slowly dropping breadcrumbs ahead of its official 2025 schedule release on May 14 (8 p.m. ET). Many of the league’s premier matchups have already been announced.
The New York Jets have not been a fixture in this ramp-up period. Outside of their Week 6 game in London against the Denver Broncos, the entire Jets schedule remains a mystery with less than 32 hours until the reveal.
It is hardly a surprise. These re-tooling Jets are viewed as pushovers by most of the league. They placed 30th in ESPN’s recent power rankings. Nobody expects the Jets to be crammed into prime time slots as they were with Aaron Rodgers under center.
Aaron Glenn would not have it any other way.
There is one thing the Jets should wish to see in their 2025 schedule, and as the Jets continue to be overlooked in the schedule release ramp-up, it is becoming increasingly likely.
No more than one prime time game
Generally speaking, most NFL teams are expected to receive at least one prime time game per season, but this is not a hard rule. While 31 teams were scheduled for at least one prime time game in 2024, the Carolina Panthers received zero (unless you count their Munich game against the Giants).
Hailing from the nation’s largest media market, the Jets are unlikely to receive zero prime time games, even with their low expectations. The Jets have not had a season with zero prime time games since 1981.
In addition to their London game, we should assume that New York will receive at least one night game under the national spotlight. But Jets fans should pray that the number does not go any higher than that.
Aaron Glenn has preached his mission to “move in silence” all offseason. He has conveyed this message not only through his words (or lack thereof) but also through his actions. This is a coach who clearly wants his young team to learn the value of making football not just the top priority, but the only priority.
Spending the year nestled deep within the 1 p.m. slate would be the ideal platform to accomplish that goal.
Buried in CBS’s No. 4 spot with Spero Dedes or Andrew Catalon on the call, the Jets can focus entirely on football. They will be wiped from ESPN’s radar, leaving the talking heads to fixate on their beloved Cowboys or Aaron Rodgers’ latest trip to South America.
Nationally televised games brew extra non-football drama that this Jets team does not need. Over the last two years, New York crumbled under the bright lights that Rodgers drew to the team.
While these young Jets must eventually become prime time-ready to get where they want to go, they need to learn how to handle their business first. A season with 15 non-national games would help them establish a culture of football-first standards before they step into the spotlight of higher expectations.
We have already seen multiple instances in franchise history where the Jets benefited from this type of schedule in a similar situation.
The 2006 Jets were coming off a 4-12 season in 2005, leading to the firing of Herm Edwards and the entrance of Eric Mangini. With a 6.5-win over-under and one prime time game, the 2006 Jets embraced the low expectations to go 10-6.
Entering 1997, the Jets were the NFL’s bottom feeders, winning four games over their past two seasons. Bill Parcells’ arrival brought newfound hope, but the nation wasn’t buying it yet, as the Jets had an over-under of 6.0 and were given one prime time game. Parcells’ scrappy underdogs went 9-7, setting the table for a breakout 12-4 season in 1998.
Glenn (who played for the Jets from 1994-2001) was a core piece of the Jets’ defense before and after Parcells’ arrival. He’s seen firsthand how beneficial it can be to have low expectations when a new coach is trying to rebuild the culture of a perennial laughingstock.
Later on, Glenn experienced the same luxury as a coach. Serving as the Lions’ defensive coordinator from 2021-24, Glenn watched as Detroit received only one prime time game (excluding their guaranteed Thanksgiving games) over their first two seasons under Dan Campbell.
Detroit received one prime time game in 2021, but after going 3-13-1, they received zero in 2022 (outside of the Thanksgiving game). With nobody watching them, Campbell quietly and gradually built the Lions’ culture, all the way to the point where they finished 2022 as one of the league’s hottest teams.
The Lions went 8-2 to close the 2022 season. The last of those 10 games was a Week 18 finale in Green Bay, where they faced a hot Packers team that needed a win to make the playoffs. As a result of Detroit’s improved play (with all eight of their wins coming at 1 p.m.), the NFL flexed Detroit into prime time for the season finale. By then, they were ready to handle the spotlight, sending Rodgers into the darkness after his final game as a Packer.
Detroit received five prime time games in 2023, and they were more than ready to handle it by that point. But it took them two years of seasoning in the shadows before they were prepared for the limelight.
That’s precisely what these Jets need.
The Jets should be ecstatic if they draw fewer than two prime time games on their 2025 schedule. The less attention the world is paying to this team, the better.
