There’s more information about the New York Jets possibly beginning their 2023 NFL season in a prime-time game.
According to Ryan Gilbert of Audacy, well-respected NFL insider Brian Baldinger reported on the latest edition of the “In The Huddle” podcast that he is “hearing” the Jets and New York Giants could open their campaigns playing against each other in the Week 1 “Monday Night Football” slot.
The Giants will be the “home team” when the two clubs meet at MetLife Stadium for the regular-season clash.
“They’re going to attract national TV,” Baldinger said of the Jets now that they’ve officially acquired quarterback Aaron Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers.
NBC Sports’ Peter King wrote for a piece published on March 20 that he expected the Jets will “get a full complement of prime-time games—five of them” during the 2023 season thanks to trading for Rodgers.
NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North then indicated before the draft that the Jets will be featured in a handful of standalone timeslots throughout the campaign, and King wrote for Monday’s “Football Morning in America” column that the Jets will likely play in the season’s first “Sunday Night Football” or “Monday Night Football” game.
King also said the Giants facing the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles is “the leader in the clubhouse” to be the league’s Black Friday afternoon game on Nov. 24.
“You know what showtime’s all about,” Baldinger continued. “They don’t have to go looking for storylines. It’s staring right there at them. This deal (the trade with Green Bay) was important to get done before the schedule came out because the Jets had one national TV game last year against (the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 16) on Thursday night. It was a disaster. Aaron will be featured with that team quite a bit.”
While the NFL is reportedly targeting May 11 for its full schedule release, the league theoretically could begin “leaking” dates and times for so-called “select games” as soon as this coming Sunday.
