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In my opinion it’s so unfair to jump to conclusions about what type of season a team might have based on what the NFL schedule-makers on Park Avenue think about them.
The Jets have no Monday Night Football games, and just one national game, on Thursday night.
New York Post headline – “Jets schedule shows what the NFL really thinks of them.”
Look, I understand it’s a tabloid so they are given to attention-grabbing headlines, but my point is that no matter what Howard Katz and company at the league office think of the potential of this team, they really don’t know what is truly going to happen. They are just guessing.
I tweeted a few hours ago – “Because schedule-makers can’t see future, often teams given a lot of prime-time access turn out average due to injuries and other factors.”
How often do we turn on a prime-time game during the season, and say, “What an awful matchup – what is that team doing on there – they stink.”
Well, the schedule-makers didn’t think they were going to be bad.
But like I also tweeted, “Too many people give too much credence to schedule-makers view of teams like they are Nostradamus-type figures.”
Like I said the other day about the Jets low-keying it with the media this year. I actual think a low-key schedule, so to speak, is good for them in 2017.
The Jets need to establish a much better football culture in 2017, and media attention isn’t important. It’s all about focus and fundamentals coming off a nightmare of a season loaded with dysfunction and distractions.
I don’t get too much into evaluating schedules because they don’t matter that much. It’s out of a team’s control, and they truly “take one game at a time” as the old sports cliché goes.
But I will say this. The Jets schedule at the beginning of last year killed them, especially with Ryan Fitzpatrick holding out the entire off-season, so he got no work with this targets, which certainly didn’t help the Jets upfront. Also Darrelle Revis reported out of shape so he was particularly bad early in the season as he worked himself into shape.
Jets dug a whole early in the season they could never get out of.
On paper, and that is always we are talking about, on paper, the Jets’ first five games this year should be more manageable than last year.
Sept. 10: at Bills, 1 p.m.
Sept. 17: at Raiders, 4 p.m.
Sept. 24: vs. Dolphins, 1 p.m.
Oct. 1: vs. Jaguars, 1 p.m.
Oct. 8: at Browns, 1 p.m.
I’m basing that on Josh McCown being the QB. I’m not buying this competition for one second, especially based on how green his two competitors are. So if McCown can stay healthy and manage the games, and the Jets’ pass defense improves this year, which is should (it can’t get worse than last year), I think the Jets’ first five games should be very competitive. The Bills, Jaguars and Browns should be beatable teams, and I think people are overrating the Raiders a little bit. Also in the first five weeks, the Jets host the Dolphins, which is tough, but winnable.
Then things should get much tougher.
Look, I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I said before none of us know how these are teams are going to turn out, but I’m just basing this on my gut instincts covering the league.
And I think we can all agree, even with mystery factors we can’t point out right now with these teams, the Jets’ first five games in 2017 probably won’t be as much of a herculean task as last year.
April 20 2017
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