For the first time in 45 years, the New York Jets do not have a scheduled primetime game for the 2026 NFL season.
Even the worst teams get a primetime slot or two throughout the season, at least that’s how it used to be. The NFL (for the most part) was always pretty fair about dividing up national television games. That has now come to an end.
Advertisement
The Jets aren’t the only ones to be left out this year; the bottom four teams in the league, record-wise, have also been excluded from primetime. The Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, and the Miami Dolphins also didn’t make the cut. It is a bit odd that the Raiders were left out, considering they had the first pick in the NFL Draft (Fernando Mendoza), but he is expecting to sit for a while behind Kirk Cousins.
Head coach of the Jets recently commented on the matter, saying, “To me, it’s more of you earn the right,” Glenn said, and, yes, you can use that as motivation, but you earn the right. That’s the good thing about this league. You earn your right—players, coaches, everybody. You earn your right to get what you get in this league.”
Even with New York‘s huge market, the Jets couldn’t be saved this time around, but the team did make strides in the NFL Draft to improve, and it is possible they could be flexed into a Thursday Night Football or Sunday Night Football time slot.
As of now, this reflects the past few years of the Jets being consistently inconsistent.
This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: Jets’ consistent inconsistency prompts zero primetime games in 2026