NFL feels Jets 'owe us one' with load of primetime games after Aaron Rodgers injury

The Jets 2024 schedule was released on Wednesday, and it looks like a daunting one, as Gang Green opens the season with three games in 11 days while carrying six primetime games on the schedule, tied for the most of any team in the NFL.

Asked about New York’s schedule, which includes all six primetime games in the first 11 weeks of the season, NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North essentially told reporters that the league sees it as a makeup for not being able to showcase a Jets team with Aaron Rodgers at the helm last season.

“That’s an awful lot of primetime games early in the season,” North said, via Brian Costello of the New York Post. “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 [Rodgers] to last four plays was disheartening for many of us.”

Rodgers took the field for the Jets season opener last year, the first of five primetime games scheduled for his debut campaign in New York, and promptly suffered a season-ending Achilles injury just four snaps into the Week 1 matchup with the Bills on Monday Night Football. The league was left with a load of Jets games under the lights, and a national audience taking in a dismal offense led by Zach Wilson. Clearly, the league wants retribution, and is banking on a healthy Rodgers in 2024.

North also added that the Jets could get more than six primetime games if they are flexed into a nighttime slot later in the season, which seems probable if Rodgers is healthy and the team is competing to end its painful playoff drought.