Tanking is a popular strategy in professional sports, especially in the NBA, to get a top draft pick. It's less common for it to occur in the NFL.
But the New England Patriots appear to be in a prime position to do so if they wanted to this season. They have a bottom-tier roster and are expected to finish in the basement of the league -- they have the lowest over/under win total of any team at DraftKings Sportsbook.
That could entice the Patriots to give up on the 2024 season before it even starts and set their sights on 2025 and beyond.
But would Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf pull the trigger on tanking away the current season? Wolf, in a conversation with the Boston Herald's Andrew Callahan, made his stance abundantly clear about the proposition of tanking.
"I think tanking cheats the game. (We) would never get in a situation where we think that's the right way to go," Wolf told Callahan. "That's not what the NFL is all about. That's not what pro football is all about, and that's not what we're gonna be about."
Despite that, the actions of the Patriots this offseason run contrary to what Wolf said. New England traded arguably its best player last month by sending Matthew Judon to the Atlanta Falcons for a 2025 third-round pick. Judon was in the middle of a contract dispute, though, as the Patriots look to reshape the team's culture with Jerod Mayo at the helm.
New England also did very little to address their offensive line this offseason, a clear weakness from 2023 that carried over into this year.
The Patriots decided as well to put Jacoby Brissett under center and have rookie Drake Maye watch from the sidelines, an unsurprising move with Maye needing time to develop. The two quarterbacks taken ahead of Maye in the draft and Bo Nix, who was selected 12th overall, will all start right away for their respective teams, though.
It's clear Brissett is nothing more than a stopgap until Maye is ready. Brissett may be a respected veteran who can make an offense look functional, which would be an upgrade in New England compared to the last few seasons. But he will never be mistaken for a winner, as evidenced by his 18-30 record as a starter.
So, the Patriots might not look to intentionally lose to improve their draft positioning. But they probably don't have to either given where their roster currently is at.
And in the end, the Patriots might be fine with that and adding another high draft pick to put next to Maye as it sure seems like their eyes are more on the future than this season.
