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Brian Hoyer: Don’t expect Patriots, NFL players to ‘tank’ for draft picks
"Those guys are playing for their jobs."
Suffice it to say Patriots fans were … not happy the team beat the Buffalo Bills in their final game of the season last Sunday, losing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft in the process
Next to Jerod Mayo’s firing last weekend, the next most-popular topic in Boston’s sports landscape was whether or not the Pats should’ve tried hard to tank, thereby securing the top pick and maintaining their chance to accelerate their rebuild by trading down for a haul of additional selections.
But to former Patriots QB Brian Hoyer, who has been on his share of bad teams in addition to his years in Foxborough, the idea of “tanking” for draft picks simply doesn’t exist for NFL players.
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Why? There’s simply too much at stake for their careers.
“Those guys are playing for their jobs,” he said on the latest episode of “The Quick Snap” podcast.
That fact hasn’t stopped some Patriots fans from ridiculing players for winning Sunday’s game or for suggesting Mayo and his staff should’ve done more to lose it with the Bills also resting starters like QB Josh Allen.
That’s where it helps to understand the human side of football, according to Hoyer.
“You’re playing for an organization, but that organization only owes you for so long. Then it’s about you and your reputation and what you put on the line. Yeah, that organization may want the No. 1 pick. But if you’re a free agent or you’re a guy who hasn’t really established himself in the league, if you go out there and don’t play well, that’s on you. That has nothing to do with the team,” he added.
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“No one’s gonna go into free agency like, ‘oh, when Joe Milton got the chance to play, the Patriots were trying to tank, so we’ll let them slide for that.’ No, they’re going to evaluate him just like it’s any other situation or any game … How are you gonna get 53 guys to go out there and just not perform their job? I don’t know what incentive there is for those players.”
Co-host David Andrews vociferously agreed.
“I couldn’t imagine if someone told me to go and lose a game. Like I’d probably say … ‘If you want me to lose, I’m not gonna play. I can’t stand for that,'” the Patriots captain said.
“These are guys who don’t know when you’re gonna have another opportunity … so when you get that opportunity, you better show up and you better show out.”
Hoyer and Andrews’s perspectives are notable as formerly undrafted players whose roster spots were never guaranteed, regardless of their teams’ record.
In fact, Hoyer noted that he got his first starting opportunity with the Arizona Cardinals in 2012 on the last week of the season after the NFC West squad claimed him off waivers from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“They had nothing to play for. Most likely, [then Cardinals head coach] Ken Whisenhunt was getting fired, and they’re like, ‘you’re gonna start.’ I’m like, this is amazing. I’m gonna finally get a chance to play in the NFL. You think that I was gonna go out there and do anything less than the best I could so the Cardinals could have a better draft? I didn’t even know if I was gonna be there the next year,” he said.
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“You may put your worst players out there, but these are guys that are playing in the NFL. They’re still good players. So when they go out to play, they’re going to … make sure that they look good and have prolonged their career before they do anything for tanking for that organization.”
If nothing else, the Patriots saw a lot on Sunday from young players like Milton, a third-string QB who shone in his first NFL action with two TDs, and Kayshon Boutte, a sixth-round pick who capped off a strong sophomore season with his first 100-yard game in the NFL, who might be part of their future plans.
While that might not ease the pain of losing the top pick in the draft, perhaps it could lock in jobs for a few players that can help the team get back to the playoffs down the line.
In the meantime, the Patriots will just have to focus on drafting a really good player with the No. 4 pick. With Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter primed to be available at that spot, that’s very doable.
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