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New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn reacting during media availability in training camp.
The New York Jets did not receive a single prime-time game on the 2026 schedule.
ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter revealed on “Get Up” that the league is sending a clear message.
“What the league is saying, and I happen to disagree with it here, is that the league doesn’t believe that those teams are going to be credible and winning,” Schefter said on May 15, 2026.
The Jets were one of five NFL teams that weren’t scheduled for a prime-time game this season, along with the Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, Las Vegas Raiders, and the Miami Dolphins.
League Responds: EXCLUSIVE
On Friday, May 15, less than 24 hours after the schedule was released, I spoke with the NFL’s Senior Director of Broadcasting, Blake Jones, on “Boy Green Daily.” He is one of the elite few individuals who is responsible for putting the schedule together each year.
The first question is, why didn’t the Jets get any prime-time games in 2026?
“Yeah, it’s a tough process that we have to go through every year. Not every team is going to end up with a prime-time matchup. We really start by focusing on our division winners and those teams that are regularly coming in with a lot of wins. We populate those windows and try to figure out is there a good fit for maybe some of these teams in a different window to be featured one way or the other,” Jones explained to me on the podcast.
For context, the Jets haven’t won the AFC East since 2002. Over the last 14 years, they have only had one winning season, and it was 11 years ago (2015; 10-6).
“Sometimes it’s the early Europe games where, hey, you’re still going to get a standalone window, all eyes are gonna be on you,” Jones added.
The Jets didn’t get an international game either. Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic revealed that the Jets requested to play the Detroit Lions in Germany. The league denied that request and gave that game to the New England Patriots instead.
“It didn’t fall that way this year with the Jets. Certainly not one where we started out the process and we say, ‘No. 1 rule, no Jets in prime-time.’ Absolutely nothing like that. It evolves over several months as we go through this process … They’re going to be a key staple in our Sunday afternoon window,” Jones told me.
The Jets have a franchise record of 15 of their 17 games will be at 1:00 pm ET this season. The only two games that aren’t at 1:00 pm are because of where the game is being played. Gang Green will travel to Arizona and Los Angeles this year. Those games will be at 1:00 pm local time on the Pacific coast, but it will be in the 4 pm window on the East Coast.
League Doesn’t Agree With ‘Challenge’ Label: EXCLUSIVE
I bluntly asked Jones on “Boy Green Daily” if the league is “challenging” the Jets to play better if they want prime-time games.
“Yeah, I would definitely say not something we would categorize as a challenge. We always want to make sure that it’s an opportunity. It may not have been set up this way from the beginning, but every team has their chance to play their way into some of those higher-profile windows in the latter half of the season. I think it would be great to see the Jets be one of those teams. That would be really exciting to see that happen,” Jones told me.
Games can be flexed in and out of prime-time later in the season. So if the league undersold the Jets as a contender, they can fix it later. It’s up to the Jets to change their destiny.
While the league may not want to label it that way, the writing is on the wall. The Jets have burned the league so many times. Over the last few years, the league has bought into the idea that the Jets would be good. Then the season would play out oppositely.
They aren’t diving into the deep end. If the Jets want to play their way into those windows, the league will gladly update later. The pressure is on Jets.
Paul Esden Jr. covers the New York Jets for Heavy.com. A New York native, he co-hosts a morning show, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green Digital.” Before joining Heavy in 2021, Esden Jr. covered both national and New York sports for FanSided, Elite Sports NY, and The Score 1260. More about Paul Esden Jr.
