Schedule Released: Five primetime games for Jets next season

The Jets might be the biggest story in the NFL. That's what they're saying by putting the Jets in primetime on nine different occasions in 2010, including three Monday night games.

The full schedule is posted on the left sidebar, but here's a quick rundown.

FIRST QUARTER
vs Baltimore (MNF)
vs New England
at Miami (SNF)
at Buffalo

To start the season, the Jets open with back-to-back home games against difficult opponents. The home games will be nice, but three divisional games in a row, two on the road, and none of them with Santonio Holmes? That's rough. Braylon Edwards may miss the first game as well after his incident last season in Cleveland. Also, the New England game is after a short week. It shouldn't matter that much so early in the season, but you like having extra time to prepare. The Jets playing down in Miami so early is also annoying since the Dolphins have a much better home field advantage in September when it's still really hot out. That said, if the Jets can get off to a fast start, they'd really set themselves up well down the stretch. And vice versa for a poor start. Two out of four games on national TV also will give the nation a long early look at Gang Green.

SECOND QUARTER
vs Minnesota (MNF)
at Denver
BYE
vs Green Bay
at Detroit


Another primetime game makes it three out of the first five. Brett Favre's return to the Meadowlands will be interesting, to say the least. Favre and company will have two weeks to prepare in that game, and at this point, he'll be completely healthy, so I would have preferred that game later in the year. Still, it will be a very interesting matchup of two of the best teams in football. Following that up with a road game in Denver is not easy but it's certainly winnable. The Jets then get a well-deserved bye before taking on Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Finally, the Jets then get a break in Detroit, but the Lions are at least decent at home, so the Jets can't afford a letdown there. This is a stretch where the Jets could (and perhaps should) go 3-1.


THIRD QUARTER
at Cleveland
vs Houston
vs Cincinnati (Thanksgiving)
at New England (MNF)


Detroit and Cleveland back-to-back in the middle of the season should mean two wins in a row, but both are on the road, so they aren't total gimmes. Houston couldn't handle Rex Ryan's defense last year, so it will be fun to see Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson go up against Darrelle Revis and company again. The Bengals will look for revenge on Thanksgiving after the Jets ended their season last year. The Jets got hammered last time they played on Turkey Day, but Kellen Clemens was also running around for dear life back then, so things have changed indeed. Then comes the rematch with the Patriots. The Jets will have an extra long week to prepare, but so will New England, as they play the matinee Thanksgiving game in Detroit. It will be both teams' first divisional game in over two months, so both teams will be fired up.


FOURTH QUARTER
vs Miami
at Pittsburgh
at Chicago
vs Buffalo


If I'm going to complain the Jets play Miami in the heat, at least the NFL returned the favor, bringing the Dolphins to the Meadowlands in December. That will probably be a huge game in the division. The Jets must avoid a let-down against Miami since they play New England the week before the Dolphins game on two occasions. The schedule-makers then force the Jets to go to Pittsburgh and Chicago in the dead of winter, so you can bet this will be a cold December for the Green and White. It would have been nice to face Pittsburgh without Ben Roethlisberger, but the NFL didn't give the Jets many breaks. Santonio Holmes will be back to face his former team in that one. Then again, facing Chicago so late in the year could be advantageous if their defense is ravaged by injuries again by this point in the year. Buffalo in week 17 is nice. The Bills should be out of it by then, so if the Jets need to win to get into the playoffs, they should be able to. And if the Jets can rest their starters by that point, all the better. And if the Jets are 7-8 and eliminated from the playoffs at that point, heads will roll.