For years (like, 20 of them), the top seed in the AFC and a first-round playoff bye felt preordained for the New England Patriots. That they routinely skipped the wild card round played a huge role in their annual appearance in the conference championship game.
After a year off, the post-Tom Brady Patriots once again appear playoff-bound. However, the battle for the AFC's No. 1 seed is a total dogfight, with 9-4 New England currently leading three teams with eight wins and four teams with seven wins. (There are five weeks remaining in the regular season).
Perhaps more than ever before, it would behoove the Patriots to finish the regular season atop the AFC standings.
Of course, a playoff bye helps any team, and that's especially true this season with the addition of a 17th game. The two teams that participate in Super Bowl LVI will have played at least 19 games and as many as 20. That's a lot of football, and enduring such a schedule will be particularly difficult for older players and rookies.
The Patriots began the 2021 season with one of the oldest rosters (average age of 26.5) in the NFL. The midseason addition of 32-year-old Jamie Collins only made the Patriots, who now have an average age of 27.3, longer in the tooth. Players such as Collins, Devin McCourty (34), Dont'a Hightower (31), Kyle Van Noy (30), Lawrence Guy (31) and Adrian Phillips and Matthew Judon (both 29) would benefit from an extra week of rest at the end of a 17-game slate.
All of them are key players on a defense that plays a physical brand of football and, really, steers the ship of the 2021 Patriots.
But old rosters, especially on defense, aren't new to the Patriots. From 2001 through 2004, when New England won three Super Bowls, it had average ages of 27.1, 27.6, 28 and 27.2, respectively.
What makes these Patriots unique are the significant roles held by young players, specifically rookies Mac Jones, Christian Barmore and Rhamondre Stevenson.
Consider this: If Jones, who played in all three preseason games, goes on to play in the Super Bowl without a first-round bye, he will have played in 23 games since arriving in New England -- on top of enduring the rigors of NFL training camp, practices and overall physicality. He played in only 13 games his final season at Alabama, which enjoyed two in-season breaks of over two weeks, a 10-day rest before the National Championship Game and often blew teams out.
The increasingly excellent and important Barmore, who also played at Alabama, only appeared in 11 games last season. Stevenson, whom you could argue has emerged as New England's top running back, only played in six games last year at Oklahoma due to a drug-related suspension.
It's not ludicrous to suggest that the fate of the 2021 Patriots could come down to the abilities of those three players, as well as the aforementioned defensive veterans, to overcome an unprecedented NFL workload.
Nothing will make that job an easy one, but a first-round bye certainly would help.
