Report: People in Patriots Management 'Would Rather Have More Losses' for Next Year's Draft. Let the Tanking Talk Begin!

Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.

As long as the Patriots were sitting on just one measly victory on the season, against a severely diminished Jets team that they almost lost on a Hail Mary at the end, it was going to happen sooner or later. Unless they started piling up wins, the talk of tanking the season was inevitable. I just in my wildest, ayahuasca-fueled dreams never imagined it would be the third week of October. 

But to be fair, in New England we're not used to this stuff. Around here, to have any sort of institutional memory about how a truly bad NFL team operates, you have to be getting offers from the AARP in your mail box once a week. 

But the Tank Talk has begun. From suggestions that are subtle:

And plenty more that are graphic:

And now the first report from a Patriots beat media member claiming there are people in the organization sincerely rooting for losses:

The rest of the report is here behind a paywall. But without reading it, you get the upshot. Giardi reports that "folks in the upper reaches of the building" are hoping for 1-15 and the chance to draft Caleb Williams. Which either refers to the Kraft family or the guys who work on the HVAC units, and I think we all know who he means.  And he includes this in the article:

Which I guess suggests that Belichick is over-reporting injuries. Either to flip the State Bird of Massachusetts at the NFL, or to lay the groundwork for sitting guys as part of a cynical, Major League-style master plan to lose as many games as possible the rest of the way. 

And so it has come to this. Already. With 11 more games, plus a bye week. Not talk about trying to run the table, but whether they can keep all 11 balls on the table without accidentally knocking any into a pocket. Bloody hell. 

Even if you don't believe the report and think ownership would love nothing more than to see Belichick right the ship, get Mac Jones and this offense on track finally, and regain their organization's winning attitude and pride, just having this out there for public consumption is a nightmare scenario. Especially so early in the season. Just 50 months ago, the Krafts expanded that part of Gillette where the banners hang to make room for their sixth. To have even the mere suggestion there are people in the organization hoping the team swims to the bottom blowing bubbles behind it like the 2011 Colts is more than I can bear. 

I mean, I get the logic. This franchise has only seen two Top-10 picks in the 21st century: Richard Seymour in 2001 and Jerod Mayo in 2008. It's almost impossible not to see other teams land blue chip studs at the top of the draft that turn their fortunes around and think therein lies the solution to all your problems. That if you don't blow it by winning loseable games against the Washingtons and the Denvers, all your problems will be solved. You'll land the next Josh Allen, a new Ja'Marr Chase, or an Aiden Hutchinson to call your own and we'll be back on top in no time. 

Just a word of caution though. I can't prove it. I can't quantify it. I can't cite you all sorts of data. I just feel it in my heart that losing on purpose is bad for a franchise. Become a bad team as part of a grand plan and a piece of your collective soul dies. That willful intent to lose becomes part of your DNA and there's no getting rid of it once it's there. It gets passed down to future generations like a curse upon your house. A sort of sinister opposite of the winning culture Belichick worked so hard to establish here in 2000-01, that has lasted all this time. And no draft pick is worth risking all that. 

The sad, inescapable fact though is that the way things are going, the Patriots could successfully tank without even trying to. And that reality is even harder to accept.