


The Jets are ready for prime time.
When the NFL schedule is released on Thursday, the Jets are expected to be one of the league’s prime-time players.
It is possible the Jets could get the maximum of six prime-time games this year.
It has been a while since Jets fans have had to stay up late very often to watch their team.
The Jets have been 1 p.m. warriors for most of the last decade.
Aaron Rodgers is going to change all that.
The Jets’ new quarterback makes them an attractive option for the networks and streaming services to feature when the sun goes down.
This will be a remarkable change for a franchise that has been like a driver with their learner’s permit and forced to be home by dusk.
If the Jets get an appearance on “Sunday Night Football” this season, as expected, it will be their first since Nov. 13, 2011, when the Patriots beat them up.
The last touchdown pass in a “Sunday Night Football” game for the Jets was a 7-yarder from Mark Sanchez to Plaxico Burress.
Yes, it’s been a minute.
In all, the Jets have been in 25 prime-time games since the 2012 season.
They have been in just nine in the last five years.
Incredibly, Robert Saleh has yet to even coach a “Monday Night Football” game.
The Jets have played two prime-time games with Saleh as coach, both on Thursdays.
Prime time has not been kind to the Jets in recent years.
They have lost their last eight prime-time games.
You have to go back to Sam Darnold’s debut in 2018 in Detroit to find their last win in prime time.
The Jets have had some indelible moments in prime time over the last decade-plus.
Four nights after that last “Sunday Night Football” appearance in 2011, Tim Tebow drove down the field in the final minutes to hand the Jets a crushing 17-13 loss that was so tough for coach Rex Ryan to stomach he needed medical attention after the game.
A year later, Tebow was on the Jets when they played the Patriots on Thanksgiving night.
The game is remembered for the Buttfumble but it was an all-around ugly night in a 49-19 loss.
A few weeks later, the Sanchez era came to an end on a Monday night in Nashville when Sanchez had five turnovers.

Sanchez’s successor Geno Smith had a three-touchdown Monday night in Atlanta, giving fans hope they had found their franchise quarterback.
A year later, it was clear they had not and the organization was descending into dysfunction again when Ryan had the Jets attempt only 13 passes and run the ball 49 times in a Monday night game against the Dolphins.
In 2015, Rex Ryan returned to MetLife as the Bills coach and beat the Jets on a Thursday night.
The following season featured two brutal “Monday Night Football” losses, a 28-3 destruction in Arizona and then 41-10 at home to the Colts.
Both losses resulted in Todd Bowles benching quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and the second one began the calls for Bowles’ job.
There were a few bright spots mixed in around this time.
A win over the Colts in Week 2 in 2015 announced that team’s arrival on a Monday night.
Who can forget Jamal Adams and the defense dancing against the Bills in 2017 on a Thursday?
Then, there was the Darnold debut in 2018 and all the hope that provided.
Two weeks after that Darnold debut, Baker Mayfield broke the Jets hearts in the second half on a Thursday night and it has been painful since then.
Trevor Siemian got his leg snapped in 2019 and then Darnold saw ghosts against the Patriots, both on “Monday Night Football.”
The Jets lined up to get Lamar Jackson’s autograph after he humiliated them on a Thursday night.
The terrible 2020 season featured Brett Rypien and the Broncos beating the Jets on a Thursday and Nick Folk kicking the Patriots to a win on a Monday night.
Over the last two years, the Great Mike White Hope ended with an injury on a Thursday in Indianapolis and the Zach Wilson era felt closed after a rainy Thursday night loss to the Jaguars in December.
All of that putrid prime-time play is a microcosm of what Jets football has been like for most of the last decade.
The Jets hope that has changed with Rodgers arriving in green and white. The first sign of that change comes Thursday when the Jets become prime-time stars once again.