The Jets will open with two home games for only the second time since 2011. It’s a splendid opportunity for the Green & White to fire up the home fans for what lies ahead from there.
After a two-game road trip to the state of Florida, the Jets return for three consecutive home games, the first two against two more formidable foes. First Dallas, this year’s “17th opponent” from the NFC East, comes to North Jersey, and QB Dak Prescott is expected to be fully rehabbed and leading the Cowboys into battle on Oct. 5.
The second home match in this group is in name only because the Jets will fly “across the pond” to play in their fourth London game since 2015, this time serving as the host side against Denver at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Broncos will go to London Town with an up-and-coming QB of their own, second-year man Bo Nix, who eked out the second win of his NFL starting career over the Jets by 10-9 at MetLife Stadium in Week 4 last year. Nix improved each week and ultimately guided Denver into the playoffs as the AFC’s quintessential dark horse seventh seed.
The Jets will not take their bye week or even an extra day off after London. They’ll fly home and get right into their Week 7 preparations to host Carolina at MetLife on Oct. 19. This will be only the Panthers’ fourth road game against the Jets and their first in eight years at MetLife, or since a sunny, windy affair in 2017 that the Jets lost, 35-27.
That will make it five home games in the first seven weeks of the season and then, with the Cleveland Browns visiting Nov. 9, six home games in the first nine games. The last time the Jets opened with that much home exposure in their first seven and nine games was 1964, when the Weeb Ewbank Jets were embarking on their first campaign in their new Queens, NY, digs at Shea Stadium.