The NFL will release its regular season schedule on May 14, and the Jets will finally learn when the matchups they have known for months will actually land on the calendar. For now, the dates remain the missing piece, but the team’s offseason is already moving fast.
Jets veterans have begun Phase 2 of the club’s voluntary offseason program, while the rookie class and a handful of first-year players are due to take part in rookie minicamp this weekend at 1 Jets Drive. OTAs are set for May 27-June 11, followed by mandatory minicamp June 16-18. That gives the Jets only a short runway before the league starts settling the real order of the season.
The opener will draw the most attention once the schedule is unveiled. Last season, the Jets opened with consecutive home games against Pittsburgh in Week 1 and Buffalo in Week 2, and in three of the past four seasons they have started at MetLife Stadium. That makes another home start a real possibility, even though nothing is confirmed yet.
The Week 1 discussion has already begun to narrow around a few possibilities. The Jets’ opener against Pittsburgh last year was started by Justin Fields, and the Chiefs are being discussed as a backup option in the opener speculation. The matchup would carry extra weight because Patrick Mahomes is said to be way ahead of schedule in his return to action, and league scheduling chief Mike North said the league would not feel great if the Chiefs were in primetime and Mahomes was not in the lineup. If Kansas City is not ready, the league could look elsewhere.
There is also another layer to one of the games on the slate. The Jets facing former head coach Robert Saleh and several former Jets adds interest to a matchup that also will include the 2025 No. 1 overall selection at quarterback, Cam Ward, and 2026 No. 2 overall selection David Bailey. That is the kind of game that can climb into a better TV window if the rest of the schedule cooperates.
The prime-time picture is less clear, but last year’s pattern offers some clues. The Jets had 13 kickoffs at 1 p.m. Eastern when the schedule was released, including all eight home games at MetLife Stadium, and their only prime-time road games came at Miami in Week 4 on Monday Night Football and at New England in Week 11 on Thursday Night Football. A repeat of that kind of structure would not be a surprise. A Raiders-Jets game at MetLife would also make for an interesting Thursday night pairing.
The long trips on the Jets’ slate are easy to spot. Their dates with the Cardinals in the desert and the Chargers in Southern California are the two longest travel games, with one flight to PHX covering about 4,280 miles from EWR and another to LAX stretching roughly 4,500 miles. Those are the kind of road swings that can shape how a season feels before December arrives.
Buffalo may again become a late-season fixture. The Jets closed their 2025 season at Buffalo, and in recent years they have visited the Bills in Western New York on Jan. 9, 2022, Dec. 11, 2022, Nov. 19, 2023 and Dec. 29, 2024. The outlier was the pre-Thanksgiving date in 2023, but the broader trend is clear: Buffalo has often landed near the start or the finish of the Jets’ schedule.
That is the tension hanging over May 14. The Jets already know the opponent list, but the order will shape everything from travel to television to the tone of the first month. The schedule release will not decide the season, but it will tell the Jets where they are expected to be tested first.
