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It’s boring, but true . . .
The best thing for players and coaches is to take one game at a time.
So the only opponent, the Jets should focus on, right now, is Buffalo in Week 1.
And even that isn’t such a great idea in the middle of May.
This time of year the players should be focusing on getting in great shape, improving their technique, learning the playbook, and developing chemistry with teammates.
Process thinking.
However, now that the schedule is out, and the Jets know that they are hosting Buffalo in Week 1, some of their assistant coaches should start work on the Bills. There is no doubt about it.
And some assistants should even do some work on Dallas in Week 2.
These assistants also need to keep working with players in the off-season program and do the game plan stuff on the side.
But nobody should be worrying about Kansas City in Week 4 or Philadephia in Week 6 right now.
Just focus on getting better, and eventually on Buffalo in Week 1.
However, with all this being said, the schedule release is awesome for fans, so they can figure out what home and away games they might want to buy tickets to. And for the away games, they can start making their flight arrangements and so forth.
But while I think too much is made in the media about the schedule release. What can look like a bear of schedule now, could look way different during the season, based on how teams play (not current hype on how they will play) and also on injuries. Some teams that look good now could get ravaged by injuries changing their outlook.
So with all this being said, the Jets might have a slight bone to pick with the NFL schedule makers for the first six weeks of their schedule.
The Jets have a new QB and a lot of new players. It could be rough early on as they attempt to get on the same page.
And the first six games are the roughest part, on paper, of their schedule.
Look, I don’t know all that goes into these league schedule decisions, and maybe all the newness on the Jets wasn’t anything the league office even considered, but to be playing Buffalo, Dallas, New England, Kansas City and Philadelphia in five of your first six games, is one of the most difficult beginning to a season that any team has on paper.
The one game that seems a little weaker in that stretch is in Week 5 at Denver, but with Sean Peyton now coaching that team, they should be tougher this year, and you also have to deal with the high altitude as a road team.
So that was my biggest takeaway from the Jets schedule being released – it’s quite a challenge early on.
They get a bye-week after the stretch, and then things lighten up, on paper.
If they can survive that early stretch at 3-3, they should be able to make some hay after that bye-week.
But what the league schedule makers did to them, over the first six games, was a little obnoxious.
May 12, 2023
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