The regular-season schedule is coming. Work is currently happening behind the scenes to prepare for the official announcement of the dates and times to go with the who and the where of the 272 regular-season games.
And the NFL is assuming that a much-anticipated trade will indeed happen.
League V.P. of broadcast planning Mike North, in an appearance on the It’s Always Gameday in Buffalo podcast, said the league is operating under the premise that the trade between the Packers and Jets will happen.
“As we sit here today on April 18th, yeah, we’re assuming, for now, that he’s going to be the quarterback of the Jets and the schedule reflects that,” North said, via Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post. “If we get through the draft and there’s any kind of indication that it may not happen, we might hedge a little bit and kind of shift some of our focus — not entirely. It won’t necessarily be a start from scratch, but it might be a pullback just a little.”
Once Rodgers developed his “intention” to play for the Jets, we pointed out that the schedule will have plenty of games that the networks will want to feature in prominent locations. North agrees with that assessment.
“All signs seem to indicate that Aaron Rodgers is going to be the quarterback of the Jets and as such — obviously they play the Bills twice, they’ve got an incredible schedule next year they play Kansas City, they play Dallas, they play Philly,” North said. “I mean, if Aaron Rodgers is their quarterback we’re going to do something with those games. If Aaron Rodgers isn’t the quarterback of the Jets we’re going to do something with those games but maybe not as much.”
They’ll likely know before the schedule finalized in May whether Rodgers is going to be the quarterback of the Jets. A trade likely will happen this week, possibly on Friday night, during the second round of the draft.