The NFL schedule makers have tossed the Jets a hot potato of a half-dozen difficult games to start the 2025 season, the Green & White's first under HC Aaron Glenn.
The six-game stretch starts against three of last season's playoff teams (Pittsburgh, Buffalo and at Tampa Bay). Next comes a Thursday night game against Miami at Hard Rock Stadium, where the Jets have not won since 2014), and then a visit from the Dallas Cowboys before a game in London in Week 6 against Denver, another playoff team whom the Jets will play for the sixth straight season.
"I think that'll be something talked about in the locker room or the meeting rooms, is that, listen guys, these are some playoff teams," the Jets' former WR Quincy Enunwa told team reporter Eric Allen on a post-schedule reveal edition of "The Official Jets Podcast." "They're teams that made it to the playoffs last year, so we kind of get to gauge who we are this year. Obviously, we have a whole new regime, from the GM [Darren Mougey] to the head coach to the coaches. But you kind of want to see, OK, how do we measure up to these teams that know what it looks like to be in the playoffs?"
Other than the two primetime games and the trip to London, the rest of the Jets schedule (other than Week 18 at Buffalo, perhaps) includes 1 p.m. kickoffs. And although it's hard to get a reading on the players' preference, Enunwa said that from a physical standpoint, players generally prefer the early-afternoon starts. In addition, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Jets' rank 19th in total travel with 17,486 miles over 12 time zones projected for their 17 games. The round-trip to London and back (6,900-plus miles) will cover approximately 40% of the total.
"You know, I think you love the primetime games just because you get more eyes on you, but it's always good to get a 1 o'clock game," he said. "Then you get your nights to recover and it's not so late. So you get to play the game, you get to do your work, and then you get to go home and enjoy yourself, obviously, after a win."
Jets-Steelers in Week 1
HC Aaron Glenn was candid from the outset when he said the Jets would "move in silence." And if part of his goal was to tamp down the spotlight that came with QB Aaron Rodgers, the NFL schedule-makers earned an assist. Over the last two seasons, the Jets played in 11 primetime games (a franchise high of 6 in 2024) -- this season that number is a modest 2. Besides those pair of games (one on Monday night, Sept. 29 at Miami; and one on Thursday night, Nov. 13 at New England) plus the early-morning start for the U.S. for the London game (Oct. 12 vs. Denver), the rest of the Jets' slate is a slew of 1 p.m. Eastern kickoffs (with one TBD at Buffalo in Week 18).
"You'll see Pittsburgh at the Jets are on CBS at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in Week 1 along with seven other NFL games all at the same time," Mike North, the league's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, told CBS Sports after being asked if the league was privy to Rodgers potentially signing with the Steelers. "I think if the league knew, we probably would've scheduled that game for a national television window. So at worst, it's Justin Fields against his old team. At best, it's Aaron Rogers going up against one of his old teams. Look at what we did with Aaron Rodgers' first game the last two years (both Monday night games). If we knew something, I think you would've seen it reflected in the schedule. That being said, still a good game."
On a conference call the day after the release of the schedule, North said: "Look, I think if we knew for certain that Aaron was going to be the quarterback of the Steelers, we might have done something a little different in Week 1 with the Steelers game."
This year will be the first time the Jets have opened a season against the Steelers.
Schedule Gets an AI Assist
Gone are the days when Steelers executive Dan Rooney cobbled together the NFL schedule in the 1960s using analogy devices -- dominoes and pencils -- to produce the slate in a single day. A 14-team league playing 12, then 14 games can never compare with today's 32 teams, an array of broadcasting and streaming deals, games played on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas and New Year's Day, plus seven international games.
After the schedule reveal on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that the league now uses a global array of 4,000 AI-equipped computers in partnership with Amazon Web Services that offered up "an estimated one quadrillion (a one followed by 15 zeros)" permutations before offering up 150,000 combinations that league officials whittled to the one that was released.
"It changes year to year with the new windows and the new games and partners that we add'" Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution, told The Post. "And it changes with the ability to use technology to allow us to be smarter and get even better results, marrying that human eye with the power of computing."
According to the Post: "Of the 150,000 computer-generated schedules that were produced in the past 3½ months, NFL officials studied about 500 closely and then 200 of those with a fine-tooth comb. While the tent poles -- the marquee matchups and international games -- have been in place for weeks, they continued tinkering over the weekend and didn't get the final sign-off on the full schedule from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell until Tuesday."
