The New York Jets will not be playing any international games on their 2026 schedule, but they were open to the idea.
According to a report from Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic, the Jets were among the teams that volunteered to play a game in Munich, Germany, during the 2026 season. The Detroit Lions would be the host team, so only the teams scheduled to play a road game against Detroit in 2026 would be able to volunteer.
However, the NFL chose the Jets’ despised AFC East rivals, the New England Patriots, instead. It is worth noting, though, that the Jets were not the only volunteers, so there were other teams snubbed as well.
For the Jets, it made sense strategically to volunteer. Playing an international game is advantageous for the road team, as it is actually a neutral-site game that would otherwise be a true road game if played at the home team’s stadium.
Plus, since 2026 is the AFC’s turn to play 9 road games to 8 home games, an international road game would have given the Jets an even 8-8-1 split between home, road, and neutral games, a slight advantage compared to most of their AFC rivals.
So, as a result of getting passed over in favor of New England, the Jets will have to play the Lions in Detroit instead of on a neutral site in Munich. That’s a minor loss for the Jets.
The silver lining is that New York will have one of the NFL’s lightest travel schedules in 2026, largely because they will not leave the United States.
The Jets are scheduled to travel just 14,038 miles through the air, ranking 27th in the NFL and 15th in the AFC. It’s the lowest mark in the AFC East by a wide margin; New England leads the division with a fifth-ranked total of 27,590 miles, with the Munich trip being a large chunk of that.
To the loyal Jets fans who intend on following the team to all 17 of their games this season, you will save some money on plane tickets (or gas mileage).
