Why Jets-Bills is Week 1 'Monday Night Football' game

There's more information about why NFL schedule-makers chose the New York Jets to host the Buffalo Bills in the first "Monday Night Football" game of the 2023 season on Sept. 11. 

Richard Deitsch of The Athletic reported that ESPN management requested to telecast the official home debut of newly-acquired Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers this September. 

"We did not put any parameters on our ask in terms of who the opponent was, and I was pleasantly surprised on two fronts," ESPN president of content Burke Magnus explained. "First, we got (Rodgers') first game in the Jets uniform at home in Week 1. Then where I really got excited was seeing it’s an AFC East game with a really good opponent and another great quarterback in Josh Allen. The ceiling on that game is just enormous...seeing Buffalo at the Jets was about as good as we could have possibly gotten." 

A report emerged earlier this month that the Jets facing the New York Giants was a top candidate for the "Monday Night Football" opener. The Giants will be the home team when those clubs meet and instead will "host" the Jets in Week 8 on Oct. 29. 

NBC Sports' Peter King wrote for his "Football Morning in America" column published on March 20 that he believed "the Jets will appear in either the Sunday or Monday prime-time opener" and that NBC would want either Jets-Bills or the Jets versus the reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles for the campaign's first "Sunday Night Football" clash. 

NBC instead lost out to ESPN. 

"Week 1 is powerful," Magnus added. "We have potential in that window beyond most if not all of our other windows, just in terms of the fans thirsting for the new season and optimism running wild...We recognize that to be a priority window for us." 

The Jets have five prime-time games this coming season and will also be featured in the first-ever NFL Black Friday contest when they play against the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 24. Amazon Prime Video is the exclusive national home for the Black Friday matchup and is offering it for free, and both NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North and Amazon vice president of global sports video Marie Donoghue have made it known the parties wanted to showcase the country's largest retail market on what is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year.