The Patriots might face a starter-less Bills team in Week 18.
The Kansas City Chiefs took care of business on Christmas, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-10. As a result of their victory, the now-15-1 Chiefs were able to lock up the No. 1 seed in the AFC and secure a first-round playoff bye even with one week left in the regular season.
For the New England Patriots, that might end up being bad news. Why? To find out, we will have to look one week ahead toward the team’s season finale versus the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills, after all, were in contention for that top spot in the AFC until Wednesday. Had the Chiefs lost in Pittsburgh, there was still a chance they could overtake them in Week 18 due to the head-to-head tiebreaker.
With that chance gone, and Buffalo locked into either the second or third seed in the conference, the Bills might decide to take things easy heading toward the playoffs. Consequently, there is a chance they decide to rest some of their starter for portions if not all of their upcoming game against the Patriots.
If so, New England’s chances at victory — two weeks after a narrow 24-21 loss in Buffalo — would improve quite a bit. And if they do steal a win in their final game of the season, their draft outlook might experience a dramatic swing as well.
At the moment, the Patriots own the second pick in the draft thanks to a 3-12 record they share with four other teams. New England is the favorite among them to end up picking at No. 2, but any win over their last two games — against the Los Angeles Chargers and the Bills — could shake things up and possibly drop them down all the way to No. 9.
For that to happen, a lot would have to fall into place. However, the first of those pieces did indeed drop on Thursday.