The NFL schedule release earlier this week certainly was a favorable one for fans of teams like the New York Jets, who received six prime-time games in the first 11 weeks of the upcoming 2024-24 NFL season. But can it be argued that this could actually be a negative for the Jets roster?
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk certainly appears to believe so. On his Pro Football Talk Live show Friday, Florio argued that all the travel that will be required of the Jets early on in their season could be a massive strain on the players.
“The truth is, the broadcast partners are clamoring for Aaron Rodgers,” said Florio. “So they loaded it up early before the Jets have the wheels come off, The problem is they’re kicking the wheels off by doing this. By having them hopscotch the country and play short weeks twice and all of these prime-time games. There’s an extra layer of stress and strain that goes into all of these stand-alone games and all of this travel early in the season.”
It’s hard to argue this point from Florio. Just in the first three alone, the Jets will be traveling from Santa Clara, California for a Week 1 Game against the San Francisco 49ers to Nashville, Tennessee to face off against the Tennessee Titans. From there, they will have four days to head back to the Northeast for a Week 3 game against the New England Patriots, who they’ll host in a Thursday Night Football matchup.
In the span of ten days, the Jets will be essentially traveling to every corner of the country to play three games, which can obviously be strenuous on several different levels.
Sure, it makes sense for the networks to schedule the Jets for so many primetime games. The Jets and star quarterback Aaron Rodgers are obviously a big draw that should bring in ratings.
Florio further discussed this, essentially saying that the league is prioritizing ratings over the “integrity of the game” for the Jets.
“You still have an obligation to balance things out,” said Florio. “It can’t be ‘let’s have the best possible TV audiences’. That can’t be the driving factor. It should be a fair balance for all teams. At some point it’s just going to be whatever we think every week is going to lead to the biggest ratings and the biggest numbers and the most money, that’s what we’re going to do and it’s unfair to certain teams to do that.”
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.