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Some consider it a slight for a team to have no national TV games.
Some consider it a slight to have no Thursday, Sunday, or Monday night football games.
It means the schedule-makers don’t think your team is going to be very good.
But it’s actually a good thing for football players and coaches (and fans and writers).
In the schedule that came out recently, the Jets have the following time after 14 of their 16 games:
1:00 PM EDT.
They have two West Coast Games, at the Arizona Cardinals and the Los Angeles Chargers, that have this time:
4:05 PM EST.
But that is also a 1:00 PM EDT with the time difference taken into account.
First of all, if you fall into the category that considers it a slap in the face to your team that they got no national TV games, consider how much guesswork goes into putting a schedule out in March for a season that starts in September, a league that has a high injury rate.
The man who heads up the NFL’s scheduling department admitted last week that the scheduling process is not easy.
“It never gets easier,” Mike North said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “I think the challenge, as always, is what do any of us know? I mean, it’s May, and we are talking about putting a game on national television schedule seven months from now – what do any of us know?”
He said twice in this short quote, “What do any of us know?”
That tells you all you need to know.
Who saw New England going to the Super Bowl in the first year under a new coach last year, in a season that looked like a rebuilding campaign?
In the past, the league used to give each team, no matter how they fared in the previous season, one national television game.
Those days are over.
With the networks paying billions of dollars in rights fees, you can’t justify handing them national TV games featuring teams like the Jets, Arizona, Las Vegas, and Tennessee coming off bad seasons.
The league is going to get angry TV executives calling them over that.
That doesn’t mean these teams are going to be bad, but in May, the TV suits don’t want to see national TV games with these clubs based on how they fared last year, and how the “experts” view their chances this year.
But that is why they have the “flex” element in their scheduling process, where they can move games around if some teams expected to be good aren’t, and teams expect to be bad, exceed expectations.
Let’s be honest, though, the other games are flexed or not, 1:00 PM EDT games are a blessing for teams.
No short weeks for players, like for those Thursday games, most of them hate, especially veterans.
NFL players often compare the Monday morning after a game to being in a car wreck the day before.
And seven days is often an ideal healing period to feel “good” for the next game.
Philadelphia Eagles veteran offensive tackle Lane Johnson said a couple of years ago that he needs until Friday or Saturday to feel himself again after a Sunday NFL game. He was saying this when explaining why he doesn’t like playing on Thursday Night Football.
So, honestly, the Jets’ 2026 schedule, as it sits right now, is a dream schedule for a player – all games 1:00 PM EDT with a full week to heal, and of course, in the case of the bye-week, when they have two weeks to heal.
Most fans and reporters like 1:00 PM EDT better as well.
For fans, who may have to work the next day, they usally don’t like getting home after midnight.
Reporters feel the same way. Best to get all your stories done, but let’s say 8:00 PM EDT, and head home at a reasonable hour.
So while some consider the schedule sans national TV games an insult to the Jets, players, coaches, fans, and reporters consider it a good thing.
May 21, 2026
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