Here are some fun facts and figures surrounding the newly-released New York Jets 2023 schedule
Ah, NFL schedule release day.
Perhaps nothing showcases the stranglehold the NFL has on the American imagination, as the mere attachment of times and dates to matchups that were common knowledge for years causes the country to freeze in place and ignite debate—smack dab in the middle of basketball and hockey’s vaunted postseasons.
In the midst of their decade-plus streak of futility, New York Jets fans had the bittersweet luxury of ignoring the de facto holiday. Many viewed it as a reminder of their team’s ineptitude.
However, the Jets transformed themselves into a national draw last season thanks to the sterling efforts of young talent like Saucer Gardner, Breece Hall, and Garrett Wilson joining the fold alongside veteran breakouts like Quinnen Williams. That was all before Aaron Rodgers joined the fold.
The NFL made no secret of ending several long New York television droughts upon the unveiling of the 2022-23 regular season slate, fulfilling that promise with a large batch of national appearances among the 17 games. Check below for fun facts, figures, and tidbits behind the acclaimed attachment of months, numbers, and callsigns.
Week 1: Buffalo (Monday Night Football)
Monday, September 11 (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN)
The Jets immediately cash in on their newly-realized national appeal with a visit from ESPN. While the worldwide leader in sports has visited a green East Rutherford far more recently than NBC’s cameras, it still ends a relatively lengthy drought, last coming to a Jets-infused MetLife Stadium during its fan-free phase in 2020 (a 30-27 loss to New England).
New York can simultaneously end a pair of four-year losing streaks with a win during the Monday night opener: their last Week 1 win and last Monday night win came in the same game, a dominant 48-17 effort in Detroit that opened the 2018 campaign and short-lived Sam Darnold era.
Playing on September 11, while recognizing the tragedies that affected the tri-state area, will likely conjure memories of the Jets’ last primetime excursion: as the country observed the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the Jets earned a comeback victory over America’s Team, topping the Dallas Cowboys 27-24.
Week 2: @ Dallas
Sunday, September 17 (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS)
Speaking of the Cowboys, the Jets’ first road trip comes in a long-awaited return to AT&T Stadium. Such an opening to their interconference slate marks their first tilt in Arlington since 2015 with Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm.
Did the Jets obtain Rodgers for games such as these? It’s probably not the ideal game they had in mind, but the quarterback holds a particularly one-sided rivalry with the Pokes: not only do two of his dozen playoff victories come against Dallas (both in the NFC Divisional round) but he also earned his lone Super Bowl ring and MVP in their building by posting 304 yards and three scores in a 31-25 triumph over Pittsburgh in the game’s 45th edition.
The Jets, however, hardly need a lesson in beating the Cowboys, having won each of the last three meetings dating back to the aforementioned Sunday night visit in 2011. Still, this matchup figures to have a lot of the same pomp and circumstance as the Darrelle Revis vs. Dez Bryant battle back then.
Week 3: New England
Sunday, September 24 (1 p.m. ET, CBS)
Those who grew accustomed to the Jets’ frequent 1 p.m. starts in the new decade get to return to familiar territory when the hated Patriots come to visit. This marks the latest first 1 p.m. game for the Jets since 2000 when their first such kickoff also had to wait until Week 3. The Jets will seek to break a 14-game losing streak to Bill Belichick.
Week 4: Kansas City (Sunday Night Football)
Sunday, October 1 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC)
The Jets’ long-awaited return to peacock-branded airwaves (and a relatively instant reunion for former Chiefs receiver Mecole Hardman) comes against the defending Super Bowl champions. It’ll be their first showing on the proper Sunday Night Football package since 2011 and their first appearance on NBC since Thanksgiving 2012. The less said about either game, particularly the latter instance, the better.
The Jets will look for their first Sunday night win since the aforementioned emotional thriller over Dallas. They’ve been lucky to avoid Patrick Mahomes during his rise to power, facing him only once in Kansas City (a 35-9 victory for the Chiefs in 2020). This marks the fourth time in the past five seasons that the Jets have been forced to face the defending Super Bowl champions, as they were granted a break last season after previously opposing New England, Kansas City, and Tampa Bay.
Though the path is far from easy, the Jets have a prime opportunity to get off to a good start in front of their fans: this is the first time they’ve had three home games within their first four since 2014.
Week 5: @ Denver
Sunday, October 8 (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS)
Though they’re far from divisional rivals, this will uncannily mark the fourth straight season that features a meeting between the 1998-99 AFC title game combatants. Even more bizarrely, this will mark the third time it’s staged at Empower Field at Mile High, though the Jets managed to break a mini-losing streak against Denver with a 16-9 win in the Rockies last October.
Nathaniel Hackett seeks revenge against the team that cut him loose before his first full season with them came to a conclusion.
Week 6: Philadelphia
Sunday, October 15 (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox)
In a game that’s likely destined for Fox’s “America’s Game of the Week” package, the Jets’ next opportunity to earn an elusive win over the Eagles, as they’ve fallen in each of the first dozen matchups to date. Combined with their matchup against the Chiefs two weeks earlier, this will mark the second time in the last four seasons that the Jets will face each of the defending Super Bowl combatants (previously going up against Kansas City and San Francisco in 2020).
Week 7: Bye Week
Week 8: @ NY Giants
Sunday, October 29 (1 p.m. ET, CBS)
The festivities and relative prestige of the Snoopy Bowl make their way to the regular season, as the scheduled crossover between the East divisions keeps it within its traditional four-year time slot. Already afforded an extra home game thanks to the rotating 17-game slate, the Jets will get to play 10 games in East Rutherford this season, perhaps fulfilling a long-sought wish from the fanbase in the most mundane way possible. Fortunately for those fans, the Jets have been anything but blockheads in recent meetings against the Giants, as they’ll look to form their first three-game winning streak against Big Blue in the 15th all-time matchup that counts.
Week 9: LA Chargers (Monday Night Football)
Monday, November 6 (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN)
A relatively short Monday night layoff ends for the Jets eight weeks after their opener, as they’ll get multiple visits from all of Hank Williams Jr.’s rowdy friends for the first time since 2019 (losses to Cleveland and New England, both at MetLife Stadium). Surprisingly, this will mark only the Chargers’ second visit to MetLife Stadium since their return to the “Los Angeles” moniker, as they previously beat the Jets in an offensively-challenged 14-7 game on Christmas Eve in 2017.
Week 10: @ Las Vegas (Sunday Night Football)
Sunday, November 12 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC)
While it’s nice that the Jets’ first business trip to Sin City gets the national television treatment, consider it a perk of their newfound prestige upon the arrival of Rodgers and last year’s rookies. In yet another instance of the Jets’ growing national appeal, this marks the franchise’s first instance of consecutive night games since 2014 (when weather forced a game regularly scheduled for Buffalo to move to Detroit). In terms of regularly scheduled night games, one has to go back to 2010, when inclusion in the Thanksgiving nightcap begot a Monday night visit to New England the following week.
This matchup carries the intrigue of Rodgers facing off against his old comrade-in-arms, Davante Adams.
Week 11: @ Buffalo
Sunday, November 19 (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS)
The Jets and Bills’ battle for New York (State) heats up this time around: this is the first time that neither game in the yearly pair has been destined for the 1 p.m. slot since 2009. Considering a Rodgers-less Jets were able to swipe one of the meetings last season, that’s hardly surprising.
Week 12: Miami (Friday)
Friday, November 24 (3 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video)
Black Friday is the latest holiday set for an NFL invasion and the Jets are set to play a major part in the latest caveat of Amazon’s developing relationship with the league. The Jets have not played a game on Friday since 1983, which ironically also came against the Dolphins (a 34-14 defeat at the hands of the defending AFC champions to close out the season). Their last Friday home game as a franchise came during their inaugural season as the Titans when they dropped a 21-7 decision to the Los Angeles Chargers at the Polo Grounds.
This also marks the first chapter of the Jets-Dolphins rivalry slated for an exclusive television window since a Saturday night game in 2016. It is the third time in the last four seasons where the first game of the yearly pair between New York and Miami is not until November.
Week 13: Atlanta
Sunday, December 3 (1 p.m. ET, Fox)
This game is the Jets’ de facto 17th, created by the newly-installed caveat of facing a team with a matching finish from an interconference division (the Jets fell to Seattle in the matchup created by last year’s formula). Atlanta has not visited East Rutherford game to play the Jets since 2017 when they took a 25-20 decision.
Of note, this battle between young, up-and-coming teams will be the first time the franchises have met beyond October since 2009 (a 10-7 Atlanta win in December). With the holiday season often providing peace to many, the Jets will be among those receiving comfort and joy: after facing eight 2022-23 playoff participants in their first 11, they’ll see only two in their final six.
Week 14: Houston
Sunday, December 10 (1 p.m. ET, CBS)
The schedule considerably cools come Christmas for the Jets: in addition to the lack of 2022-23 playoff representation, the familiar territory of 1 p.m. likewise returns. In a bittersweet gift, the Jets’ last-place finish set them up with fellow-cellar dwellers from Houston rather than Derrick Henry’s Tennessee Titans or Trevor Lawrence’s surging Jacksonville Jaguars. This marks the first time that the Jets have been granted eight home games within the first 14 weeks of an NFL season.
Week 15: @ Miami
Sunday, December 17 (1 p.m. ET, CBS)
Time will tell exactly how much this game means to the AFC’s playoff picture, but it’d be a perfect time to end some Floridian futility: the Jets have had trouble taking their talents to South Beach in recent years, dropping each of their last seven visits, including last year’s mostly meaningless (from a New York perspective) season finale.
Week 16: Washington
Sunday, December 24 (1 p.m. ET, CBS)
Jets fans looking for an excuse to tear themselves away from Yuletide preparations have a legitimate excuse to do so this time around: whereas the Jets did not play on Christmas Eve last year thanks to a Thursday visit from the Jaguars, they’ll get to partake in the celebrations this time around upon the closing of their interconference slate. This will mark their first tilt against the rebranded Washington group, last facing the franchise in 2019 (a 34-17 win in Landover).
December 24 has been anything but holly or jolly for the Jets, however: in seven showings, the Jets are 1-6 as Santa Claus makes his final preparations, the only win coming over the Chargers in 1967.
Week 17: @ Cleveland (Thursday Night Football)
Thursday, December 28 (8:15 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video)
While the Jets will have to work on Christmas Eve, they can at least, theoretically, go out for New Year’s. Despite the star-crossed nature of the respective franchises, the Jets-Browns series has enjoyed frequent national exposure, as this is the third time over the past five seasons that the game has found itself in an exclusive window. The first started another dubious streak for the Jets: fueled by Baker Mayfield’s in-game debut, the Browns’ 21-17 victory in 2018 kickstarted an active five-game losing streak on TNF, which includes last year’s loss to the Jaguars.
The Jets are riding good karma against the Browns, however, especially after Ohio State alum Garrett Wilson helped capped off an improbable comeback in last September’s showdown. It temporarily flipped the fortunes of the Jets’ 2022-23 season.
Week 18: @ New England (TBD)
Saturday, January 6/Sunday, January 7 (TBD)
Enough has been said about the Jets’ struggles against the Patriots … so here’s a little something about their issues in the final week of the regular season instead: since closing out the Giants Stadium era with a 37-0 playoff-clinching win over Cincinnati, the Jets are 5-8 in Week 17/18 games when they account for the last of the season. Few of those wins have had any meaning (such as the swan song of the Rex Ryan era) and, again, it’s wise to spare Jets fans from what happened in 2015’s finale.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
