NFL schedule 2016: AFC East schedule and breakdown

The 2016 NFL schedule was released on Thursday night, giving us a chance to check out when and where every team in the league will be playing over the course of the 17-week regular season. While the schedule for the Miami Dolphins was posted here after the release, we have not yet looked at the schedule for the AFC East. We fix that this morning.

Below, you will find thoughts on the division's schedules. You will also find then entire schedule for all four teams from the AFC East.

Thursday Night Football

The Thursday Night Football schedule for the division will be completed by Week 4, when the Dolphins face the Cincinnati Bengals. The league looks to schedule each team in one Thursday night contest each year, and the AFC East has it early this season. Before the Dolphins, the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills will face off in a Week 2 Thursday night game, while the New England Patriots will host the Houston Texans in Week 3. Thursday night games have a reputation of being lesser products than the other games in the week, in large part due to the quick turn-around from the Sunday games the week prior. There is also discussion of increased chances of injuries as bodies are not fully recovered from their last games. Hopefully, getting through the Thursday night contests earlier in the season will mitigate the chances for those injuries.

Bye Weeks

The four teams will have their respective bye week over a four week span. The Dolphins, who have typically had an early season bye the past few years, actually move to the middle of the season with a Week 8 off-week, yet still have the earliest bye in the division. The Patriots will have no scheduled games in Week 9, while the Bills will be off in Week 10. The Jets then have the last bye week among these four clubs, with a Week 10 off week.

Prime Time Games

It really should not be a surprise that the Patriots have the most prime time games among the division teams this year. There is actually a span  over five weeks, where the Patriots are playing at night three times. After their bye week, the Patriots will host the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football in Week 10, visit the Jets on Sunday Night Football in Week 12, and host the Ravens on Monday Night Football in Week 14. New England has five prime time games, including the first Sunday Night Football game of the year.

What is a little surprising is that the Jets are actually tied with the Patriots with five prime time games. New York has two Monday Night Football games, a Sunday Night Football game, a Thursday Night Football game, and a Saturday Night Football game. The non-Monday night games in that set of prime time games are all division contests, facing the Patriots on Sunday night (Week 12), the Bills on Thursday night (Week 2), and the Dolphins on Saturday night (Week 15).

The Bills have just two prime time games this year. They have the Thursday night game against the Jets in Week 2, then have a mid-season Monday Night Football game (Week 9) against the Seahawks.

Miami also has just two prime time contests, starting with the Week 4 Thursday night game against the Texans. They will also face the Jets in the Week 15 Saturday night game.

East-to-West road trips

The Dolphins lead the division in trips out to west this year, playing at Seattle, at San Diego, and at Los Angeles. The league scheduled the Seattle game in Week1, then waited until after a five-week span in which Miami will play four home games and have their bye, before sending them out west again. The league did set up the Dolphins to potentially head to San Diego in Week 10, then stay out west until their Week 11 game against the Rams.

The Bills also have three trips out west this year, with Los Angeles in Week 5, Seattle for Monday Night Football in Week 9, and Oakland in Week 13. They do not get the benefit of the two back-to-back west coast games like Miami has.

New England plays at San Francisco this year, giving them one trip to the west coast, though they also travel to Arizona and to Denver, making two more longer road trips. New York also has the San Francisco and Arizona trips on their schedule.

Full AFC East Division Schedule

	Dolphins	Bills	Jets	Patriots
Week 1	@	@		@  SNF
Week 2	@	TNF	@ TNF
Week 3				TNF
Week 4	@ TNF	@
Week 5		@	@	@
Week 6			@ MNF
Week 7		@		@
Week 8	BYE		@	@
Week 9		@ MNF	@	BYE
Week 10	@	BYE		SNF
Week 11	@	@	BYE	@
Week 12			SNF	@ SNF
Week 13	@	@	MNF
Week 14			@	MNF
Week 15	@ Saturday Night		Saturday Night	@
Week 16	@ Saturday	Saturday	@ Saturday	Saturday
Week 17		@		@