There was hope that the Jets would be introduced by Carrie Underwood for the first time since 2011. Their Week 14 matchup with the Buffalo Bills was a candidate to be flexed into the Sunday night slot that was originally occupied by a matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos.
The Chiefs are obviously still very good but the Broncos have been very bad this season, creating buzz that another game would be flexed in. Indeed, a game was flexed into the spot. It just won’t be the Jets.
It will be a fellow AFC East contender, the Miami Dolphins, playing in primetime in two weeks. The Dolphins will be in Los Angeles to take on the Chargers in a game that certainly will affect the Jets’ playoff outlook. The Jets and Bills remain at 1:00 eastern that day, December 11.
NFL flexed the Dolphins-Chargers game into the 8:20 PM ET time slot on Sunday, December 11.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 30, 2022
Now before you get riled up that the NFL overlooked the Jets, note that the Jets-Bills game was actually protected by CBS, per Connor Hughes of SNY.
#Jets – #Bills was protected by CBS. That’s why it wasn’t flexed.
Quite the sign of how things have changed for #NYJ. Wanted by two networks.
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) November 30, 2022
That’s a sign that the Jets have become worthy of primetime games late in the season that CBS was willing to protect was has become a pivotal divisional game down the stretch.
So while Week 14 won’t be primetime for the Jets, there may be a chance Week 18 against the Dolphins will be. The NFL will choose two games after Week 17 to be played on Saturday as well as the Sunday night game that will serve as the final game of the regular season. With both teams in the playoff hunt, the chances of that game being for the division title or perhaps being a de-facto playoff game are pretty good and that would make that game a good candidate to get one of those prime spots in the final week.
