One of the worst seasons in modern New England Patriots history took another hit on Sunday, when the Los Angeles Rams wandered into Foxborough and emerged with a 28-22 road victory, knocking the home side to 3-8 for the year.
With the loss, New England found themselves in a two-way tie for dead last in the four team AFC East alongside the woebegone New York Jets, well behind the likes of the 9-2 Buffalo Bills and the 4-6 Miami Dolphins with six games to play in the regular season.
That road includes Sunday matinee with Miami in Foxborough on Sunday, in which oddsmakers from Bet365 Massachusetts have the Patriots as a seven-point home underdog to go with a +275 moneyline on New England at Gillette Stadium, compared with -350 odds on Miami.
At BetMassachusetts.com, we used The Football Database what draft pick position teams with 3-8 records get since the 2019 NFL season. We only calculated the 3-8 teams' first selection positions, finding the average and median first-pick positions for the draft following their 3-8 record.
What Draft Position Do 3-8 Teams Get?
Outcome | Draft Position |
Average | 16 |
Median | 11 |
Where Have Recent 3-8 Teams Drafted?
While the average draft spot of teams in New Englandās cleats is a bit skewed by the Carolina Panthersā woeful decision to trade their 2024 first-round pick to the Chicago Bears for QB Bryce Young, the overall theme is that 3-8 NFL teams donāt fare well in the following yearās draft.
Thatās because teams like New England that started the season with eight losses through 11 games sound up picking 16th overall in the 32-team first round on average, while the median draft pick for those teams was 11th overall during the period in question.
With the second hardest strength of schedule remaining in the NFL (per Tankathon) at .635, it seems like New Englandās immediate future is to leave Patriots fans a bit blue, with little in the way of a guarantee that the franchise will finish poorly enough to secure the type of draft pick that lands franchise-altering talent come 2025.
For now, Jerod Mayoās team is left looking up at a sizable gap in the AFC East standings with outsized hope that the teamās road to recovery begins in earnest with an upset victory over their divisional rivals from Miami at Gillette Stadium come Sunday afternoon.
Check out our Drake Maye Offensive Rookie of the Year odds page to track line movement and compare operators.
USA Today photo by Brian Fluharty
Author
Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
