With the AFC East already locked up, the Patriots now shift their focus to winning their season finale game against the Dolphins next Sunday and hope to hold onto the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoff picture or, better yet, steal the No. 1 seed and get a first-round bye.
After this weekend's slate of games, that still looked like a real possibility, but now that the Chargers have announced a decision regarding QB Justin Herbert's status for next week's game, it looks like the Patriots will have to be content with staying put at No.