The playoff-bound Bills welcome the very disappointing Rodgers-era Jets for a rematch at Highmark Stadium
The Buffalo Bills and New York Jets will meet at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, NY for a Week 17 AFC East grudge match. At stake for Buffalo is sweeping the Jets and improving to 13-3 to stay within a breath of the Kansas City Chiefs and the top seed in the AFC playoff race.
As for the Jets? It’s pride, and finishing up the season on as high a note as possible amid a 4-11 campaign where quarterback Aaron Rodgers was healthy enough to play the entire season.
The last time these teams met, the Jets had just parted ways with head coach Robert Saleh — someone whose defense had tremendous success against quarterback Josh Allen. It was interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich’s first game, as was the case for Jets passing-game coordinator Todd Downing being installed as the new offensive play caller over offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.
Despite that initial coaching-change lift, the Jets have run out of fuel. Meanwhile, the Bills have been on a historic pass offensively — taking down both perceived top teams from each conference in the Chiefs and Detroit Lions. It’s fair to say the Rodgers experiment has failed to live up to expectations, and that the Bills are exceeding most pundits expectations.
That makes for interesting opening odds ahead of their rematch. Entering Week 17, FanDuel Sportsbook has the Buffalo Bills as 9.5-point favorites (-9.5) against the New York Jets — with an initial O/U set at 46.5.
Will the Bills manage to defeat the Jets in Week 17, and do so convincingly? Can the Jets and Aaron Rodgers finally make good on the same sort of connections that ultimately doomed them in Week 7? We’ll find out late in the afternoon this coming Sunday!