A tiny bit of sunshine has begun peeking out at the end of the long, dark tunnel that is this year’s New England Patriots season: a solid chance at the number one pick.
Following New England’s 40-7 loss at home against the Chargers on Saturday and, more importantly, the New York Giants’ surprise 45-33 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, the Patriots have entered the pole position for the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.
Now, assuming the Patriots lose once again to the 13-3 Buffalo Bills on Sunday, New England has the opportunity to enter the offseason armed with a mountain of cap space, a stud young quarterback, and the first pick in the draft.
But how far will New England go to secure that pick on Sunday?
“There is nothing to play for, for a win, as a Pats fan,” Jermaine Wiggins said Monday morning on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show.
“If you have the opportunity to have the number one overall pick, why would you want to piss that away?” Wiggy continued.
While Buffalo is a far superior football team to New England, they’re only favored in Sunday’s Week 18 matchup by a field goal. It’s the same margin of victory the team had in Week 16 when they took on the Patriots for the first time.
Bills QB Josh Allen told reporters on Sunday that locking up the two-seed would mean resting starters for Week 18, saying, “It gives us an option to give guys rest.”
Despite how bad of a look it would be for a 3-13 Patriots team to rest its starters to ensure the first overall pick, is that something fans could see on Sunday?
“I think ownership is probably saying, ‘All right, go out there, play hard, try to get the win. But if you don't, you know what? At least we got the number one overall pick,’” Wiggy said.
“I think that's probably what ownership is doing, because it's hard to wave the white flag when you're this bad of a team,” he continued.
Meghan Ottolini suggested that the Patriots could make the drastic move of giving third-string quarterback Joe Milton the start on Sunday.
“No offense to Joe Milton, but he’s been the emergency quarterback all year, so that would be ensuring you’re getting that pick,” Mego said.
“You look over at Buffalo, they're sitting Josh Allen and they're playing Mitch Trubisky and all the backups.Then you turn and you go, our team is already basically backups outside of the quarterback and one cornerback. So we're going to play Joe Milton,” Mego said.
While the move to start Milton, who hasn’t played one snap this season, might be a bad PR move, does it matter when the No. 1 pick is on the line?
“If you're the Krafts, you have to be saying, why not get the number one overall pick? Because you could go, by winning this football game, you could go from number one to who the hell knows? Number six, number seven, number five?” Wiggy said.
“That is like a massive jump in the sense that what you'd be able to do with the number one overall pick versus the number five,” he continued.
If New England ends up getting the first pick, they have the option of going out and getting a treasure trove of assets from a team looking to trade up to one.
The possibilities the No. 1 pick opens up for New England are likely bigger prizes than whatever pride could be gained in a Week 18 victory.
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