The Jets will once again be one of the most featured teams in 2024.
New York plays in primetime six times this year, which is tied with the 49ers and Cowboys for the most in the NFL. They also open the year on Monday Night Football for the second consecutive season (although this time it's on the road) against the 49ers a year after quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles on Monday night against the Bills.
In total, the Jets will play twice on Thursday night, Sunday night and Monday night as well as a standalone Sunday morning game in London against the Vikings. All in the first 11 weeks of the year, which is the most in NFL history since 1970, per Elias Sports. That doesn't leave a lot of room for error on a team that hasn't been to the postseason in 13 seasons and went 7-10 a year ago.
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The NFL went all-in on Rodgers in the Jets in 2023, a move that proved futile when Rodgers was lost for the year after four plays in Week 1. So why did the NFL double down? Onnie Bose, the NFL's vice president of broadcasting, explained the league's reasoning to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer following the full schedule release Wednesday night.
Why the NFL scheduled so many Jets primetime games in 2024
The decision boiled down to three ideas: Rodgers, the New York market and the Jets' playoff drought.
"The reality is we built a lot of our schedule around that premise that everybody gets a shot at Aaron Rodgers and the Jets," Bose said. "It’s the New York market. If they are a successful team, given that drought, it would be such a great story. And it kind of fell apart. On the other hand, despite that, viewership was up.
“The Jets are still a solid team at their core. We talked a lot about that. How do we go into it this year? He is coming off a big injury, but at the same time it’s still Aaron Rodgers. It’s still the New York market. They still play in the AFC East. They still play the 49ers and Houston and a bunch of big games.”
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Another NFL broadcast executive, Mike North, told reporters Thursday that the Jets "owe" the league after failing to produce on primetime without Rodgers in 2024.
“That’s an awful lot of primetime games early in the season,” North said, “but, obviously, we feel like the Jets kind of owe us one. We had this conversation a year ago. All of us were all in on the Jets. For that guy [Aaron Rodgers] to last four plays was disheartening for many of us.
“[We] feel like we can run it back and certainly our broadcast partners, when they came to us early in the process talking about what storylines they want to focus on early in the season, obviously Aaron Rodgers’ return was a key one for everybody. Everybody was kind of looking for an early-season Aaron Rodgers opportunity and the Jets were feisty last year.”
BUY NOW: Tickets for every Jets game in 2024 now available
North added that the Jets could see even more primetime action at the end of the year if they stay healthy and relevant. The NFL can flex games in the earlier windows to the primetime positions to maximize viewership for critical matchups later in the schedule.
“There’s no question we’re counting on [the Jets],” North said. “Hopefully [Rodgers] stays healthy and hopefully they’re relevant. That is a lot of primetime early in the season and it may not be the end of it. You think about their stretch down the backend. I think they play the Rams, Seattle, Miami and maybe Buffalo down the stretch. There’s certainly even more of an opportunity to find their way to national television if they’re relevant.”
