Sports Illustrated Suggests NFL Schedule-makers 'Screwed' the Jets

Gang Green ranked second out of six teams on Conor Orr's list of grievances

© Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Jets' offseason moves turned the team into primetime darlings and Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr doesn't necessarily see that as a positive. 

Reacting to the 2023 National Football League schedule release, the SI senior scribe selected six teams "that got screwed by the 2023 NFL schedule." 

The Jets landed at No. 2 on Orr's list.

As it turns out, Gang Green receiving the maximum allotment of primetime exposures may not be an achievement to celebrate. Orr points to the Jets' six standalone featured games and the hype that comes with them. 

"Aaron Rodgers is playing for the Jets, which means that six of their games this season (so far) will take place when no other football game is on. While that would be a lot for any franchise, that also means balancing the delicacy of a long, arduous season with a media feeding frenzy," wrote Orr. 

The Green & White will kick off the season in the spotlight with a Week 1 home game against the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. Two weeks later, the Jets host the Super Bowl LVII champion Kansas City Chiefs in a Sunday Night Football affair. 

In addition to two Sunday night game and two MNF appearances, Gang Green will host the first-ever NFL Black Friday game and visit Cleveland for a late-season Thursday Night Football appearance.

Jets' head coach Robert Saleh sounded excited, yet cautious while reacting to the NFL announcement on NFL Network.

"It's not going to be monotonous with all the one o'clock games that we're used to," said Saleh. "Change is good. We've got to take them all one at a time, you know the deal."

From Conor Orr's "Teams That Got Screwed by the 2023 NFL Schedule":

2. New York Jets

I recognize that the Jets’ schedule is absurd, but one can also understand that they did this to themselves. Unlike the Giants, the Jets went big-game hunting this offseason and acquired one of the most mercurial and fascinating players of the 2000s. ... While I predict the Jets will be one of the best teams in the NFL this season—certainly good enough to upend the Bills and win the AFC East—one has to consider the possibility that their experiment will slide off the rails and they must mask palace intrigue over the course of a long year under the spotlight. Opening up with the Bills; traveling to Dallas for the Cowboys’ home opener; facing their biggest foil, the Patriots; before hosting the Chiefs in another prime-time game is an especially wicked way to start the season. The Jets also close the season on the road against the Browns before another date with New England. 

- Conor Orr

The Giants, Jets and Seahawks are among the teams @ConorOrr says have a right to be mad about the 2023 schedule https://t.co/W5oJCnD0us

— The MMQB (@theMMQB) May 12, 2023

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