The New England Patriots clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2019, and avoided missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in Bill Belichick’s stint as the coach in New England.
The Patriots are hardly settled in place with the standings. They have an outside chance at the No. 1 seed — that would require a hilariously unlikely sequence of losses from the teams above them. What is more likely is that they land in the wild-card round with a matchup against one of the many other AFC teams looking for solid seeding heading into the postseason.