Ups & Downs as Patriots blow opportunity for No. 1 pick (original) (raw)
The Patriots entered Week 18 in the pole position for the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. With a loss, they would secure picking first overall for the first time since 1993. All they had to do was the thing they were best at all season long - lose a football game.
Unfortunately for the future of the franchise, a rookie quarterback had other plans for New England.
The Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills 23-16 in one of the strangest home atmospheres I have ever witnessed in my entire career (and life, really).
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 05: Fans wearing bags watch the game between the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium on January 05, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Photo credit Rich Gagnon/Getty Images
Here are your “Ups & Downs” for Week 18. Let’s start positive:
Ups:
- Jerod Mayo: The first-year head coach made arguably his most important coaching decision of the season on Sunday, as starting quarterback Drake Maye was benched after just one series for the Patriots.
With one rookie hitting the bench, another came in, as Joe Milton III made his season debut in the first quarter on Sunday.
With Maye narrowly escaping his second concussion of the season in Week 17, as well as being listed as questionable heading into Sunday with a mysterious finger injury on his throwing hand, playing Maye more than four plays given all that was at stake against Buffalo could’ve been icing on the cake for an already fireable resume in year one for Mayo.
Obviously a large portion of Patriots fans wanted a loss today to secure the No. 1 pick. I get it. But Mayo making this coaching decision was truly the most important thing he could have done in Week 18.
If Maye came out of this game with an injury that would have set back his offseason development heading into his sophomore season, there would have been rioting in the streets of Foxborough.
Foxborough, MA - January 5: New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo on the sidelines. Photo credit Barry Chin/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
- Joe Milton III: Remember this guy?
The sixth-round pick from last spring’s draft hasn’t been on our radar since showing flashes in the first preseason game of this season.
But on Sunday, the rookie was front-and-center in his professional debut, as he entered the game in relief of Maye on New England’s second series of the ballgame.
From the jump, “Bazooka Joe” showed some stuff against a Bills defense resting starters for the postseason.
Milton led the team to a 13-play, 55-yard touchdown drive that took 7:18 off the clock.
Milton was 6 for 6 passing for 51 yards, to go along with 3 short-yardage carries for 2 yards. One of those carries was a backside option run for a 1-yard touchdown, which was celebrated by the Tennessee-product with a “standing back tuck,” as WEEI’s Meghan Ottolini correctly pointed out on X.com.
One series later, Milton added to the highlight reel yet again.
While keeping his perfect completion percentage alive, Milton threw a dazzling 48-yard touchdown pass to second-year receiver Kayshon Boutte, rocketing the ball off his backfoot while rolling out to his right, finding Boutte wide open behind the defense on a play that a quarterback is typically not supposed to make.
Throwing across the field off your backfoot is among the cardinal sins a QB can make. But given Milton’s arm talent and the circumstances of the game, no one was complaining. Plus, it worked!
He opened up the second half with a fumbled handoff exchange that gave Buffalo the ball on the New England 16, but we’re not going to ding him too harshly for this type of mistake in his debut (more on that later).
He also had an incompletion with just over nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter that had it been caught (and there wasn't a flag for holding on the play), would have been one of the plays of the year.
Milton finished the day 22 for 29 passing for 241 yards, with 1 touchdown and 0 picks. He also finished the day without taking a sack, which is a true anomaly for this New England offensive line.
A 2011-Matt-Flynn-regular-season-finale-esque performance for the 24-year-old.
Jan 5, 2025; Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Joe Milton III (19) reacts after runs the ball for a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills in the first quarter at Gillette Stadium. Photo credit David Butler II/Imagn Images
- Kayshon Boutte: For a player who has had flashes of brilliance at times in his second season, the LSU-product had a great day on Sunday.
Boutte was Milton’s favorite target, hauling in 7 catches for 117 yards and 1 touchdown.
For a guy that almost didn’t make the team this summer, Boutte has become New England’s best big-play receiver on the roster.
He will undoubtedly be a part of this team moving forward, and has shown that he can be a valuable part of a receiver room.
If he’s your No. 3 receiver in 2025 and not your No. 1, you’re feeling a whole lot better about that unit for year two of Maye at QB.
FOXBOROUGH, MA - JANUARY 05: New England Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte (9) flips the ball after scoring during a game between the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills on January 5, 2025, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Photo credit Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Downs:
- The New England Patriots: Football is not a sport where you can outright tank a game.
If you don’t play hard on the field, you can legitimately put yourself in a position where you can die out there. Not hyperbole.
So I can’t come out here and start handing out nominations for the “Downs” section to guys for going out and doing their job. What are they supposed to do?
These guys have to worry about their next jobs in the league. They need to put good stuff on tape as they hit free agency. This is not on them.
I’m nominating the entire organization in this category, for the sheer fact that being in this position means you need a complete overhaul as a franchise.
It’s clear that you need a new head coach. I would make the argument that you need a new general manager. You have to surround your new head coach and new general manager with a fresh group of experienced people around them, and start anew with your franchise QB and top five pick in 2025.
This can’t happen again. The stadium was about a third-full for most of the game, and that’s being generous. If this happens again next season, it’ll be less than that.
If you don’t want the few fans you have in your stadium openly booing when your team does well, then don’t have a team in a position to pick No. 1 overall.
Don’t become a laughing stock, Krafts. Don’t become the franchise you inherited in 1994. Fix your mistake. You got your franchise “back,” now do something with it.
Foxborough, MA - January 5: New England Patriots fan watch the game in the third quarter. Photo credit Barry Chin/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
So that’s a wrap on the 2024 season, folks. Your New England Patriots finished the year 4-13, good for one of the worst records in the NFL.
Unfortunately, it’s not the worst record. Therefore they will pick somewhere towards the top of the draft, instead of the guarantee of first overall.
All this team had to do was lose, and they couldn’t even get that right.
Bury this season and never speak about it again.
And I’ll say this one more time:
Don’t let this happen again.