At least from a national perspective, Patriots vs. Jets looks like one of the least appealing Monday Night Football games in some time.
The Patriots have lost four straight and are now 2-5 as a once-promising season appears to be quickly turning into a full-blown rebuild. The Jets, meanwhile, are 0-8 and potentially staring down the barrel of a nightmare 0-16 campaign, as they haven’t even been close in the majority of their losses.
The idea of “tanking” for a high draft pick has surfaced in both New England and New York, with the Jets clearly on the fast track to the No. 1 pick. The Patriots’ “tank” would seemingly be more for maybe a top-five pick rather than No. 1 overall, although a loss to the Jets Monday night could put the top pick in play.
Joining The Greg Hill Show Monday morning, CBS analyst and WFAN host Boomer Esiason weighed in on the idea of the Patriots and Jets trying to out-tank each other Monday night (listen to the full interview here). After initially entertaining the idea of Bill Belichick losing on purpose if he thinks that would be the best move for the future, Esiason explained why we should still expect both teams to play hard and give their best effort.
“Maybe this is Bill Belichick’s big way of doing things and trying to get Trevor Lawrence. Now that’s a hypothetical I could buy into, considering losing the rest of your games,” Esiason said. “But Cam Newton’s not gonna want to do that on national television. He’s gonna want to come out and have a great game. He’s gonna want to run through the Jets. I think it’ll be a close game.”
Jermaine Wiggins brought up the idea of a “stealth tank” -- basically losing while still making it look like you’re trying to win. But Esiason said players wouldn’t buy into that either.
“Come on, Wiggs. You and I have played. We know what it’s like to be on the field. We want to win,” Esiason said. “We want to go out there, we want to play well, we want to put our best foot forward on tape.
“Even the New York Jets, the players are sick and tired of being the butt of everybody’s jokes here. I know that everybody up in New England is used to winning, and this is a tough time, I’m sure, dealing with all of this. The guys still want to go out there and win. And by the way, every coach, on their tombstone, wants a win as opposed to another loss added to their record.
“While we all make fun of it and talk about tanking and stealth tanking, the players still want to win. I would think you’ll get good effort. It may not be pretty. It may not be what we saw in Arizona yesterday between Arizona and Miami, but it’s still going to be a hard-fought game, and the players are going to go out there and play their asses off.”