Jets Schedule Changes: Next Week’s Opponent is Now the Dolphins

Yesterday the NFL announced schedule changes while the Jets were losing to the Cardinals.

This changes were made necessary by league postponements due to positive COVID-19 tests. A number of schedule changes were made.

For the Jets, there were three changes.

This coming Sunday the Jets were originally scheduled to go to Los Angeles to play the Chargers. They will now go to Miami for a road game against the Dolphins.

The game against Miami was originally scheduled for Week 10. That is now the Jets’ bye week.

Week 11 was originally the Jets’ bye week. They will now play their game against the Chargers in Los Angeles then.

These changes eliminate one of the most interesting scheduling quirks in NFL history. The Jets and Dolphins were originally scheduled to play Week 10. Then both teams had a Week 11 bye. Week 12 they are scheduled to play at MetLife Stadium. (It should be noted that Miami’s bye had already been changed from Week 11 due to previous league scheduling switches.)

The schedule change does move a long cross country trip to immediately after the bye week. It also, however, means the Jets will have three cross country trips in the season’s final seven weeks as December games at the Rams and Seahawks are also on the schedule.

It also makes this week’s game difficult. The Jets’ staff has been doing a lot of background work to prepare for the Chargers. Now they have to drop all of that and come up with a plan for the Dolphins on the fly. Of course the Dolphins are in the same situation since they haven’t been preparing for the Jets. As always with drastic changes, the team will the better coaching staff will likely benefit.