The New York Jets are one of five teams with no primetime games on the 2026 NFL schedule, which feels about right for the franchise that has spent the better part of 15 years finding new ways to disappoint the largest sports market in the country.
Aaron Glenn, for his part, isn’t dwelling on it.
“To me, it’s more of you earn the right,” Glenn said via ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “And, yes, you can use that as motivation, but you earn the right. That’s the good thing about this league; you earn your right — players, coaches, everybody. You earn your right to get what you get in this league.”
He is, of course, correct. And the Jets have not earned anything in a very long time.
When Aaron Rodgers arrived in New York (New Jersey) via trade before the 2023 season, the NFL’s broadcast partners practically tripped over themselves to put the Jets on the national stage. The league gave them five primetime games that year, including the season opener on Monday Night Football against the Buffalo Bills. Then, Rodgers tore his Achilles on the fourth play of the season, and those remaining primetime games became among the most unwatchable hours in recent NFL history. The Jets went on to finish 7-10, losing their remaining five primetime games after that opening-week win over Buffalo.
The NFL, rather than learning its lesson, decided to run it back. Heading into the 2024 season, with Rodgers returning from his Achilles injury, the league handed the Jets six primetime games, tied for the most in the NFL and matching only the Cowboys and 49ers. NFL broadcast executive Mike North said the quiet part out loud to reporters, suggesting the Jets “kind of owe us one” after how the 2023 disaster unfolded.
The Jets went 1-5 in those primetime games in 2024 and finished 5-12 overall. After releasing Rodgers, the Jets had just two primetime games in 2025 — a Week 4 Monday Night Football trip to Miami and a Week 11 Thursday night home game against the Patriots — and went 4-13 in Glenn’s first season at the helm.
The NFL, apparently, took the hint. Of the 16 Jets games that have set times, 14 begin at 1 p.m. ET. The other two are 4:05 p.m. regional games at the Chargers in Week 11 and at the Cardinals in Week 15. As Cimini notes, that might actually be the right schedule for a team that’s lost 16 of its last 19 night games.
Society may have progressed past the need for the Jets, but they’ll be back on our screens every Sunday afternoon in 2026, earning their right — or not — one game at a time.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.