New York Jets 2016 NFL Schedule Analysis

With the 2016 schedule released for the Jets, let's look at some of the key things to look at.

A Popular Talking Point Will Be That the Jets Have a Tough Start: Every year around this time, people judge the schedule based on how good the teams were the previous season. This is almost always a flawed exercise in a league where teams' performances fluctuate from year to year like they do in the NFL. Every year a bunch of teams everybody thinks will stink end up being good, and a bunch of teams everybody thinks will be good end up stinking. With this in mind, we will hear a lot about the difficult start the Jets have. Five of their first six games are against teams that made the Playoffs last year. The only game that isn't comes against a Buffalo team that swept the Jets in 2015. Will the schedule ultimately be as daunting as people say it will? Nobody knows.

Five Primetime Games: The Jets have not had many primetime games in recent years because...let's face it...the Jets haven't had very good teams. The 10-6 season has changed that. The Jets will appear five times in primetime, including their first Sunday Night game since 2011, a November 27 home game against the Patriots.

A Late Bye: In general, it is better to have a late bye than an early bye. Last year the Jets had their bye in Week 5,  and it worked out for them because they had a number of early injuries. More often than not, you want your players to be as fresh as possible for the stretch run, though. This year the bye is Week 11.

A Rough Roadtrip: It is always tough going on the road on on a short week after playing on Monday Night. The Jets will have an even tougher task, going all the way across the country to San Francisco in December after a Monday Night Football matchup with the Colts.

A Similar Finish: Last year with the Playoffs on the line, the Jets finished with a home game against Bill Belichick's Patriots and a road game against Rex Ryan's Bills in the final two weeks. The end of the regular season looks familiar. The Jets go to Foxborough to play the Patriots Week 16 and host the Bills Week 17.

9/11       Sunday      Cincinnati              1:00 p.m.                        CBS

9/15       Thursday   at Buffalo               8:25 p.m. CBS/NFLN/Twitter

9/25       Sunday      at Kansas City      4:25 p.m.                        CBS

10/2       Sunday      Seattle                   1:00 p.m.                        FOX

10/9       Sunday      at Pittsburgh          1:00 p.m.^                      CBS

10/17     Monday     at Arizona              8:30 p.m.                     ESPN

10/23     Sunday      Baltimore               1:00 p.m.^                      CBS

10/30     Sunday      at Cleveland          1:00 p.m.^                      CBS

11/6       Sunday      at Miami                 1:00 p.m.^                      CBS

11/13     Sunday      Los Angeles          1:00 p.m.^                      FOX

11/20     Bye Week

11/27     Sunday      New England        8:30 p.m.*                      NBC

12/5       Monday     Indianapolis          8:30 p.m.                     ESPN

12/11     Sunday      at San Francisco  4:05 p.m.*                       CBS

12/17     Saturday    Miami                     8:25 p.m.                      NFLN

12/24     Saturday    at New England    1:00 p.m.*                       CBS

1/1         Sunday      Buffalo                   1:00 p.m.*                       CBS