With the official release of the complete 2025 NFL schedule on Wednesday, the league's scheduling formula (which came into being after realignment after the 2001 season) dictates that the Jets (and the three other AFC East teams) in interdivisional games will face teams from the AFC North and the NFC South in the 2025 season -- with a 17th game against a team from the NFC East that finished in the same position in the division. For the third-place Jets, that means a home game against the third-place Cowboys.

The formula this year brings an interesting quirk in strength of schedule for the entire AFC East -- all four teams are among the dozen teams that have (on paper) the easiest schedules based on their opponents' records from the 2024 NFL season. Keep in mind that only one team (Tampa Bay) from the AFC South had a winning record, while only one team (Cleveland) from the AFC North had a losing record. And only Buffalo in the AFC East had a winning record.

Miami (8-9 last season) tied for 21st easiest SOS with Seattle based on the 137-152 records (.474) of their opponents. Buffalo (13-4) checked in tied for 23rd with Jacksonville based on the 135-154 records (.467) of their opponents. The Jets (5-12) are alone at 26th based on the 133-156 record (.460) of their opponents and New England (4-13) is 30th based on the 124-165 record (.429) of its opponents.

The Jets' .460 opponent's win percentage is teams lowest since 2008 (.457) when QB Brett Favre was calling signals. It is also the second lowest (easiest) strength of schedule going into a season since 1996.

It might seem incongruous that at the top of the list, with the most difficult schedules are the Giants (3-14) who will face teams that went a combined 166-123 (.574) and the NFC North winners, Detroit (15-2), tied for second with the Bears based on the 165-124 (.571) record of their opponents.

London: Jets (Home) Game Away From Home
The Jets, as the home team, will take the American brand of football back to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London for the second straight season on a date and an opponent that will be released this week. Last season, the Jets dropped a 23-17 decision to Minnesota, the designated home team. The upcoming game will be the Jets' fifth regular-season trip abroad in the regular season, which is tied for fourth-most among the league's 32 teams.

This year, the Jets will be the host as one of a record 7 international games -- 3 games in England (all in London, 2 at Tottenham and 1 at Wembley Stadium), 1 in Germany (Berlin), 1 in Brazil (São Paulo), 1 in Spain (Madrid), and 1 in Ireland (Dublin). The Jets last won an international game in Week 4 of the 2015 season, defeating Miami at Wembley Stadium.

As part of the league's Global Markets Program, the Jets hold marketing rights in the United Kingdom, where Jets Chairman Woody Johnson recently served as the US Ambassador to the UK.

Before this season, the NFL has played 55 regular-season international games since first going overseas in 20025: 39 in London, 6 in Toronto (all involving the Buffalo Bills), 5 in Mexico City, 4 in Germany, 1 in Brazil. The Jacksonville Jaguars have played the most (14 games) international games. The Jags are owned by Shahid Khan, who is also the owner of Fulham FC of England's Premier League.

Three Games on Christmas Day
For the first time, the NFL schedule includes Christmas Day games on a Thursday -- three in all.

Across the history of the league, there have been 32 games played on Christmas Day (including playoffs), with Dallas and Kansas City each having played in 5 games, the most in NFL history. There were two games last season on Christmas Day (a Wednesday) when KC beat Pittsburgh, 29-10, and Baltimore defeated Houston, 31-2.

The Jets played once on Christmas Day (actually, a Monday night game) -- 2006 in a 13-10 win over the Dolphins in Miami Gardens, FL. The game was played during a torrential rainstorm in sloppy field conditions. The slippery field caused the Jets to put their fate in the hands of QB Chad Pennington, who completed 14-of-29 passes for 237 yards and the team's lone TD, a 32-yard fourth-quarter pass to WR Jerricho Cotchery. Kicker Mike Nugent won the game for the Jets when he converted a 30-yard field goal attempt with 10 seconds to play in regulation, cementing a postseason berth for the Green & White.

Eagles to Host Cowboys in Season Opener
On Monday, the NFL announced that Super Bowl champion Philadelphia will open the 2025 season against visiting Dallas on Thursday night, Sept. 4.

The full schedule will be released by the league at 8 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday. That announcement will come after the league's TV partners -- Fox, Amazon Prime Video, ABC/ESPN, NFL Network (the full international schedule), CBS and Netflix -- will be permitted to unveil select games.