Image courtesy of Sports Illustrated
The Patriots media work room was still packed on Wednesday morning with reporters looking to pick at the carcass that is the 2023 season right now.
The coverage hasn’t diminished and the effort from the team inside the locker room isn’t going to either…at least for now.
At 2-6, it’s hard to believe that players are still overly motivated when a playoff berth is basically already off the table and even finishing with a .500 record at this point will be quite an uphill battle. But, these guys are professionals after all. Players are making millions of dollars to show up, practice, grind through film and try to put their best foot forward on Sunday.
While fans may want the team to finish with the worst record possible for a higher draft pick, it simply isn’t in this organization’s DNA and there’s no shot in hell a Bill Belichick-coached team will ever “tank” intentionally. Could this team end up at three or four wins even while trying to win games? Sure, the schedule gets a bit softer these next few weeks with Washington, Indy, the Giants, Los Angeles (Chargers) and Pittsburgh, but no game is now “winnable” for New England. The rest of this season is going to be a grind and even if they play their asses off, there’s no guarantee New England beats any of those teams before facing Kansas City, Buffalo and possibly an Aaron Rodgers-led Jets team the final week of the year.
Still, guys were saying all the right things on Wednesday when asked how they stay motivated with such a dire outlook staring them in the face.
“Just take it day-by-day, and not worry about the results. It’s really hard, but focus on what you can do better as a player. Young guys, old guys, everybody, it’s all about striving for getting better and working together and communicating and figuring out how to win by week versus looking at the grand picture,” said Mac Jones. “Just look at the week. What do we need to do? How do we practice to do it, and then go out there and have fun and do it on Sunday.”
“We’re professionals,” said Jahlani Tavai. “We do this for a living and our job is to play football. I don’t know what you guys see, but when I walk into the locker room I see a bunch of guys ready to play ball. A lot of guys aren’t pouting and they’re not friggin walking around with their heads down. They’re ready to get after it this week and I love that energy because it boosts my morale and gets me ready and psyched for a Wednesday practice.”
“We get another opportunity this week and I think everybody’s excited for that,” added Hunter Henry. “Just block out everything else and focus on the task at hand, which is playing the Commanders this weekend.”