Jets Favored in Five Games

Vegas has early lines on NFL games Weeks 1 through 16. Currently the Jets are favored in five games.

The games in which the Jets are the early favorite are Week 3 against the Bills at home, Week 4 at the Titans, Week 13 against the Dolphins at home, Week 14 against the Raiders at home, and Week 16 against the Browns at home.

The early lines are ultimately meaningless, but the schedule itself shows why this could be a challenging year for the Jets. I'm sure as the season approaches we are going to hear about plenty of parallels to the 2006 Jets. They were a team that also had a first year general manager. Coming off a disappointing season, they were limited in free agency to a handful of signings. They were expected to be terrible but shocked the league and made the Playoffs.

Superficially the comparison works on some levels, but there is a big difference between these two teams. The 2006 Jets had the softest schedule in the league. They only played four games against teams with winning records. The 2013 Jets will have a stretch Weeks 5 through 9 in which they will play Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New England, Cincinnati, and New Orleans all in a row. That could be a stretch that sinks the season. It has the potential to create too big of a hole to climb out from and take away the team's confidence.

On the other hand, if the Jets could somehow steal two from that stretch, they could be in a position to make some noise. Either way, it is a difficult task and one greater than the 2006 team had to face.