Over the last year or so, I have noticed discussion over the concept of rest differential. That is how much rest a team has entering games over their opponents. If you play on Sunday afternoon, while your next opponent is on Monday Night Football, it is a bit of an advantage. You get an extra day of rest. If you are coming off your bye while your opponent isn’t, you get seven.
Believe it or not, there are actually people who calculate rest differential for all 32 teams.
As you can see, the Jets have a slightly negative rest differential at -3 days.
The Jets have two games with a positive rest differential. They get a Buccaneers team coming off a Monday Night Football game in Week 3. They also have a Thursday Night Football game the week before they play the Baltimore Ravens in Week 12, which is three extra days.
The Jets have three games with a negative rest differential. In Week 4 and Week 8 they get the Dolphins and Bengals respectively coming off Thursday Night Football and the three extra days of rest it provides. The Jets also have a short week when they take on the Cowboys Week 5 by virture of that Week 4 Miami game coming on Monday Night.
I’m sorry to disappoint you all today. I know you like to get really fired up when I present you with news that the Jets are the best or worst at something. You’ll have to settle for this relatively neutral metric today.