The New England Patriots have won the AFC East for the first time since 2019.
After the New England Patriots blew out the New York Jets, players and coaches watched the Buffalo Bills-Philadelphia Eagles game.
The Patriots needed the Eagles to beat the Bills to win the AFC East for the first time since 2019 and Philadelphica came through for New England.
A day after clinching the AFC East, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel spoke about how the team celebrated.
"I mean, it was great," Vrabel said. "Everybody was kind of watching on their phones or following along. I think the timing of it worked out well, that the Eagles were able to win, and then we were able to kind of time it up here, and have the hats and the T-shirts here ready to go pretty quickly. And so, I appreciate that, and Stick [Preston Rogers]'s crew having that ready to go. Players enjoyed it. Staff enjoyed it. I thought it was perfect timing, and then everybody kind of went on their way."
The Patriots finish the regular season against the Miami Dolphins. If Vrabel and Co. beat Miami and the Denver Broncos lose to the Los Angeles Chargers, New England will be the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
"It was about 15 minutes to get a picture, the shirt's passed out, the hat's passed out and the pictures organized, but other than that, back to work, focused on the Dolphins, focused on who we may have and a plan that we'll have to try to put together to improve," Vrabel said. "And I think that's the biggest thing, is just trying to really target the things that can reasonably be improved from a technical standpoint and just things that come up throughout the game that we've maybe been working on and that we've seen or saw, and then some things that we've maybe been working on that haven't showed up.
"And that's what you do. You stay consistent and just continue to coach. Again, I always talk about coaching the action and not the result, making sure that the actions are positive and what we're looking for to help the team."
Most people around the NFL believe Vrabel will win the Coach of the Year Award and QB Drake Maye will win the MVP Award. It's been that special of a season in Foxborough.
Maye leads the NFL in completion percentage (71.7) and has 4,203 passing yards and 30 passing touchdowns.
Meanwhile, the Patriots are fifth in the league in points per game and points per game allowed in Vrabel's first season as head coach.