The NFL certainly likes to take care of the elderly. At least when they are future first ballot hall of famers joining a new team in a prime market like New York.

A lot can’t be accounted for when it comes to the NFL. The league can’t predict things like how injuries or weather will affect a game that will happen five or six months from now. A key player gets hurt or the game is played in four feet of snow and suddenly, what was sure to be a great game now turns into a prime-time dud.

One of the only things the league can control is the schedule and how each team enters a matchup. Sometimes a team can have a location advantage. The added disadvantage of a West coast team playing at 1pm on Sunday is very real. Sometimes the league will do an East Coast team a favor like schedule them back-to-back out West, allowing them to simply remain out there so they don’t have to go back and forth. 

The other schedule advantage that is relevant is how much rest each team has going into a game and for the Jets, that is one advantage they will have in spades in 2023.

The Jets will have more net rest than any team in 2023. Net rest is the difference in days between games than your opponent. For example: if the Jets are coming off the BYE week to play the Giants who played on the Sunday before, the Jets will have +7 net rest.

If the Jets play on Monday Night football and their opponent the following week played a regular Sunday game, then the Jets would have -6 net rest.

The NFL schedule is supposed to take into account net rest when it is putting their schedule together, but sometimes matchups are too intriguing to pass up putting in prime time slots.

Warren Sharp of SharpFootballAnalysis.com compiled the complete breakdown of Net Rest Edges for every team in the NFL. At the top of the list? The New York Jets.

it's not just WHO you play

the NFL doesn't control that

it's WHEN you play them

the NFL has 100% control of that

they set their schedule

unfortunately, I found the 2023 schedule is less fair & equitable at a historic level in many areas

a deep dive into the worst issues ?

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) May 16, 2023

As Sharp indicates the Jets have a net rest of +12 which is tops in the league. The Jets don’t play a single game vs. an AFC East opponent with a rest disadvantage. The schedule gives them every opportunity to be at full strength when playing the most important games of the year.

As if that wasn’t enough of a leg up, the Jets will have a rest advantage in every one of their last four AFC East games. 

The Jets will need every rest advantage they can get in 2023. Based on Vegas forecasted win totals the Jets have the 7^th hardest schedule in the NFL this season. Their projected win total currently sits at 9.5 by most odds makers. 

Strength of schedule is a major indicator in how teams will fair by the end of the season. Looking back at 2022, six of the seven teams with the easiest schedules went on to make the playoffs. Of the seven teams with the hardest schedules, only two made the playoffs and only three went over their projected win total (the Jets were one of those 3 teams).

The Jets will be well rested compared to most of the opponents they will face in 2023, but their success will come down to how they use that rest to prepare for some tough competition.

Featured Image via Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports