Poll: What Patriots outcome are you rooting for on Sunday?
For a team that has had little to play for going back months at this point, Sunday has plenty at stake for the future of the New England Patriots.
A loss guarantees the team no worse than the No. 3 overall selection in next April's NFL Draft, while it could also put them in position to move up to the No. 2 should Washington miraculously beat Dallas or other results break in the Pats' favor.
According to ESPN analytics, the Patriots have a 23% chance to earn the No. 2 overall pick and a 64% chance to earn a top-3 pick.
It's also worth noting that New England can't fall beyond the No. 5 pick, as Tennessee and the L.A. Chargers, both of whom have five wins this season, due to the various tiebreakers at play.
That's noteworthy because the Pats are a 2-point favorite this weekend and have beaten the Jets each of the last 15 meetings.
So what do you want to see from this weekend's season finale? While a loss is unequivocally the best thing in the long-term interest of the organization, is this is to be Bill's final game, I'm kind of psyching myself up for one last defense of the wall.
With the forecast calling for upwards of six inches of snow blanketing the field, the future can be damned for three hours! I say get nostalgic, root like hell for one final win, and if it costs you two or three draft spots, so be it.