Noting some benefits of the New York Jets official 2023 schedule

Last Thursday, the NFL released it’s official schedule. While the opponents were already determined, this release provided information on what weeks and the exact days that teams play.

Overall, I think the importance of scheduling is a bit overstated this early in the season because we don’t really know what teams will perform like in the next season. As an easy example, the Denver Broncos were expected to be a tough team and wound up winning only 5 games while the Detroit Lions were expected to be an easy team and wound up winning 9 games on the back of an offense that was 4th in average yards per week. With that said, there are some quirks around timing that I think can be advantages for teams regardless of the quality of their opponents.

In regards to the 2023 schedule for the New York Jets, @JGrayJets on Twitter noted a few potentially beneficial ones as it pertains to time between games for both the Jets and their opponents.

First, they play no teams coming off a bye week. This is useful because bye weeks allow teams an extra week to prep, get healthy, and just generally rest their bodies. Accordingly, teams typically perform well coming off a bye week, especially when they are playing on the road. For the Jets, this means they will not be facing any teams that have this “boost” in performance that follows a bye during the regular season.

Second, they have the third most rest days. In theory, this should afford the Jets players a bit more rest, which may have relevance for durability as well as week-to-week performance.

In the end, the Jets success will be determined by how they perform on the field. However, these small quirks may be small advantages that yield important indirect rewards within a game that is commonly described as “a game of inches” and where the smallest competitive advantage can be the difference between winning or losing a given week.