Jets’ prime-time schedule 2024: Why New York ‘owes’ the NFL after last season | Sporting News United Kingdom

NFL fans missed out on watching Aaron Rodgers during his first season in New York after the star quarterback went down with an Achilles injury four plays into his Jets career.

Get ready to get your fix this upcoming season because the Jets are all over the 2024 prime-time schedule.

Rodgers and New York’s six prime-time games are tied with the 49ers and Cowboys for the most in the NFL this season. Crazy enough, all six of the Jets’ night games occur in the first 11 weeks, giving them an unorthodox schedule compared to the rest of the league.

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The Jets’ six night games through 11 weeks are the most of any team since the 1970 merger, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

When an NFL executive was asked about New York’s congested early-season prime-time schedule, he wasn’t shy to admit that Rodgers’ unfortunate injury last season played a role because of the interest in his comeback.

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NFL executive: ‘The Jets kind of owe us one’

The Jets had five prime-time games last season. That decision backfired once Rodgers went down with a season-ending Achilles injury four plays into his New York debut.

Rodgers spent months trying to recover before the end of the season, but the 40-year-old was unable to get back on the field. That leaves NFL fans with a highly anticipated comeback trail in 2024, and the league is banking on his availability early in the year.

“Yes, it’s an awful lot of prime-time games early in the season, but, obviously, I feel like Jets kind of owe us one,” Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, said on a video conference with reporters, according to ESPN.

“When we had this conversation a year ago, we were — all of us — all-in on the Jets, and for that guy to last four plays was disheartening for many of us,” North said.

“I feel like we could 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.”

With Rodgers at the helm, the Jets should be back to near-contender status the same way they were going into last season. New York finished with a respectable 7-10 record in 2023 despite having a revolving door at QB.

“Hopefully, he stays healthy and, hopefully, they’re relevant,” North concluded.

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Jets schedule 2024

You can find New York’s complete 2024 schedule below.