The New York Jets Schedule is Full of False Hope
Dec 5, 2016; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Fans react in the stands as the New York Jets are defeated by the Indianapolis Colts 41-10 at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

We’ve known who the New York Jets will play since the 2016 season ended. We just figured out what order we’re going to lose in this week.

I hate to be a negative nelly here, but things look grim for the New York Jets this season. This is coming from a fan who used to proclaim that he was the most optimistic New York Jets fan on planet Earth.

Well, the only reason I say “used to” is because there’s only so many characters allowed on Twitter so I had to trim some fat. Every time I explain that story, I feel like I’m Kevin Hart in a comedy skit talking about switching my money from my checkings to my savings, but I digress.

There’s a lot of interesting nuggets from this schedule I want to dive into, to hear my full take you can hear it on my weekly New York Jets podcast (The Jets Zone below). Like us on Facebook here: @TheJetsZone and follow us on Twitter here: @TheJets_Zone.

Listen to “The Jets Zone: Full Schedule Breakdown” on Spreaker.

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So many different things to get into, let’s start off with some history being made. While the schedule on the hole, in my opinion, isn’t that bad, especially when you consider last season. The start is brutal.

Back-to-back road games: Week 1 in Buffalo, followed by a trip to Oakland. Fun facti: this is the first time the Jets have opened with consecutive road trips since 1992. While the back end of the schedule has the Jets finishing things off against the New England Patriots in Week 17.

Now that’s peculiar for two reasons. Namely, the Jets haven’t played the Patriots in the final game since 1998 and they’ve never in their 58-year history played the Pats on the road in their final contest.

What is the likelihood that the Patriots have anything to play for in Week 17? Marginal, at best, which means the Jets could be fighting for a playoff spot, or more likely, jockeying for the top pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. What’s the over/under on the “Suck for Sam” chants next season? I’m asking for a friend …

Some more interesting factoids comparative from this season to last season. Last season, the Jets only played two divisional games in their first nine games. This season? Five of their six divisional games will occur in the first nine contests of the season.

This is an abnormally large number that will certainly tell the story of the Jets season, way before it’s actual conclusion. Speaking of abnormalities, I’m glad for this radical change from last season.

via GIPHY

Prime Time?

Everyone loves some Prime Time, am I right? Well, not when your team has one of the worst rosters in the NFL. Do you know how excruciating a 5-11 season is? Well, the Jets didn’t know until last season because that was their first time with that record in history, fun fact.

But do you know how much more painful it was when it was the only game on the tube and millions, millions, of people are watching?

Four games to be exact. Last year the Jets were graced with that specific honor of prime time. They went 1-3 during that stretch, being outscored by a total of 71 points in the process. It was brutal to watch, so you’ll see no tears shed here when I see the Jets play the Bills on Thursday Night Football in their lone prime-time game.

Truth be told, those 13 1 p.m. ET games serves me just fine. I prefer those, to be honest. I’m about to be 24-years-old. I need my beauty sleep, ain’t nobody got time for those prime time games (even though I’m a football nut and I’ll watch them anyway … but I digress again).

In the radio business, we call this a cliffhanger, which is exactly what I’ll leave you with here. Call this an informed opinion, an educated guess perhaps, but I think because the Jets are most likely going to be awful next year, they’re going to take some risks in the upcoming 2017 NFL Draft.

Whether that becomes taking a red flag prospect like a Reuben Foster or a Joe Mixon or, perhaps, taking their chances on one of the sexy quarterback names (Deshaun Watson or Mitchell Trubisky), whichever QB they take, if they, in fact, take one, will most likely redshirt. There’s nothing wrong with redshirting a player in a tanking year, it’s not like it would’ve made any difference anyway.

People call me Boy Green for my unwavering dedication to all things New York Jets. I work at The Score 1260 in Syracuse and I'm extremely passionate about sports. I aspire to continue my rise through the business and hopefully I'll end up working for the New York Jets in some capacity.