SANTA CLARA — Monday Night Football. Aaron Rodgers. West Coast vs. East Coast.
The 49ers’ season-opening matchup certainly is prime-time worthy as Rodgers and the New York Jets come into Levi’s Stadium for a Sept. 9 kickoff.
This marks the first time in coach Kyle Shanahan’s eight seasons that the 49ers drew a prime-time opener. Their last season debut on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” was the year before Shanahan arrived, when the 49ers shut out the Los Angeles Rams 28-0 in 2016.
Primetime at our place
We’ll kick off the 2024 season vs the Jets on Monday Night Football. @ESPNNFL x @NFL
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) May 14, 2024
The last time the 49ers hosted the Jets in a season opener, Garrison Hearst delivered arguably the greatest run in franchise history: a 96-yard touchdown run for a 36-30 overtime win in 1998 at Candlestick Park.
Rodgers, a Chico native and Cal product, is coming off an Achilles tear that he sustained in last season’s Jets’ opener. Rodgers went 0-4 against the 49ers in the playoffs during his Green Bay Packers’ tenure, from 2005 to 2022.
The 49ers are 11-3 all-time against the Jets, winning their last meeting 31-13 in Week 2 of the 2020 season at MetLife Field despite season-ending knee injuries to Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas. The Jets’ only previous visit to Levi’s Stadium saw them post an overtime win on Dec. 11, 2016 against Colin Kaepernick and coach Chip Kelly.
Robert Saleh enters his fourth season as the Jets’ coach, after previously serving four years as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator, a role that Nick Sorensen got promoted to fill this offseason. Saleh is one of four coaches on the 49ers’ schedule who previously worked with or under Shanahan, the others being Matt LaFleur (Green Bay Packers), Mike McDaniel (Miami Dolphins) and Sean McVay (Los Angeles Rams).
The 49ers had opened five of their past six seasons on the road, including their NFC-winning campaigns in 2019 and last year.
