Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets will get their second chance for this 2024 NFL campaign like a phoenix rising from the ashes. After another offseason where Rodgers only added to his growing list of controversies, he and other Jets veterans are only one day from seeing the Jets’ training camp facilities in Florham Park, New Jersey.
2023 began as a season of high hopes for the Jets, having just acquired Rodgers earlier in that offseason, and then he tore his Achilles on just the fourth play of Week 1. He insinuated a return in 2023 was possible, then backed down when the Jets lost their Week 15 contest to Miami. The New York Jets play 17 contests in 2024, and to end what is now the longest streak without a playoff appearance in sports, here are five contests that they need to win in order to do so, and their AFC East opponents play an important part.
New York Jets Critical Game #1: At San Francisco, Week 1 (MNF)
The NFL schedule makers must have some sense of humor to return the Jets to the opening weekend MNF slot, given what occurred in 2023. Nonetheless, it’s another northern California homecoming for Rodgers, who has frequently been the 49ers’ kryptonite, given his career 6-3 record against this year’s defending NFC Champions.
The Jets need to put 2023’s demons behind them, and what better way to march toward a potential run at the AFC East than by coming to the backyard of his childhood heroes and walking away victorious for a seventh time against Kyle Shanahan’s unit?
Critical Contest #2, 3: Buffalo Bills, Weeks 6 and 17
To close that Week 1 MNF contest in 2023, the New York Jets walked off a miracle win on a Xavier Gipson punt return. Then they got stomped 32-6 in Week 11.
An offseason of nightmares followed the Bills in the face of their fourth consecutive AFC East crown, capped by trading superstar WR Stefon Diggs to the Texans. Buffalo’s 2024 outlook has been adjusted appropriately, with their over/under of 10.5 wins. Even still, Buffalo will remain a presence in the division, and the Jets’ schedule for 2024 will take them into Buffalo during the penultimate weekend of the campaign, after another MNF contest between the sides to close Week 6.
Critical Contests #4, 5: Miami Dolphins, Weeks 14 and 18
Much as it were in 2023, the Jets and Dolphins will wait until the latter part of the year to get together in 2024. The teams will meet first in Miami in Week 14, then the Jets will finish the 2024 campaign at home for the first time in eight seasons when these teams meet to close the season out in Week 18.
Mike McDaniel’s unit will be as high-flying in 2024 as they were in 2023, scoring 70 against the Broncos in Week 3 en route to nearly averaging 30 points a game for the entire season, but their flame then got snuffed out in ridiculously cold temperatures in Kansas City on Wild Card Weekend.
The Dolphins remain in the catbird seat if the Bills are to stumble in 2024, but with a newly-healthy Rodgers back under center, the Jets will remain in hot pursuit of the Dolphins, and these late-season contests will mean everything towards if the Jets will secure their first trip to January football since 2010.