NY Jets Schedule: 4 potential primetime games in 2021

1. The NY Jets could play the Carolina Panthers on primetime

While the Jaguars game is intriguing, perhaps no matchup on the Jets' schedule will be more highly anticipated than their eventual showdown with the Carolina Panthers.

The Jets will travel to Charlotte to take on a Panthers team that will likely be led by a very familiar face. It will be quarterback Sam Darnold's first game against his former team.

The team that has been near-universally blamed for his shortcomings. The team that discarded him after just three years this past offseason and replaced him in the draft.

And his replacement will be starting under center for his former franchise.

The idea of a Zach Wilson/Sam Darnold meeting is incredible in its own right, but there are few other subplots to follow as well. Not only will this be Darnold's first game against his former team, but the same will be true for wide receiver Robby Anderson.

The Jets low-balled Anderson in free agency a couple of years ago and Anderson will be out for revenge against the organization he once called home.

Then you have the Matt Rhule factor. Rhule was nearly hired as the Jets' head coach in the 2019 offseason before the deal fell through.

Two years later, Rhule is heading a different NFL team and coaching two players he would have coached in New York in Darnold and Anderson.

This is the game on the Jets' schedule that many fans have had circled since the day Darnold was traded.

Surely the NFL can't pass up the opportunity to let this one play out on primetime.