The first rule of Tank Club is don’t talk about Tank Club. In more ways than one.

Teams shouldn’t talk about it while they’re doing it. And the league prefers that it never be discussed after it has happened. Or after it hasn’t happened and the implications of it not happening become obvious.

Entering the final weekend of the 2024 regular season, the Patriots would have secured the first pick in the 2025 draft with a loss. Given the timing of the firing of coach Jerod Mayo (i.e., within an hour or so after the game ended), the decision to wipe the slate clean had been made.

And so, for the Patriots, a win would have meant nothing. A loss would have meant everything.

In the days preceding the draft, rumors were rampant that the Bills wanted to lose the game. That the Bills wanted to keep the Patriots from getting the first overall pick in the draft.

It wasn’t just pettiness from the Bills. They were protecting themselves against the Patriots parlaying the top pick into a player who might be a problem for the Bills, twice per year, for years to come.

Both teams seemingly tried to not win. The Patriots went with Joe Milton III at quarterback. (Starter Drake Maye was questionable with a hand injury.) The Bills, who had nailed down the No. 2 seed and had nothing to gain or to lose, benched quarterback Josh Allen for Mitch Trubisky. Late in the third quarter, after the Patriots took a 17-16 lead, Trubisky took a seat for third-stringer Mike White.

Mission accomplished, for Buffalo. Pats win. Bills lose. And New England’s potential clinching of the first pick in the draft melted into the reality of the fourth overall selection.

As the draft inches closer, the consequences of that game become more clear. The Patriots could have secured a massive haul of picks and/or players by trading down from the No. 1 spot to a team that covets Miami quarterback Cam Ward. Or New England could have stayed there, taking Colorado cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter or Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter.

Instead, the Patriots will get none of those things. No windfall for trading down from No. 1. No Travis Hunter. No Abdul Carter. All because they won when they shouldn’t have.

Some coaches firmly believe that tanking in all forms has very real consequences to the overall culture and psyche of a program. That losing breeds more losing, and winning breeds more winning. In this specific instance, however, a win by the Patriots — at a time when they already planned to fire their head coach — kept them from securing the kind of boost they won’t get as a result of winning. And it’s one of the most critical realities of late-season games for teams that have no shot at the playoffs.

In many situations, it makes far more sense to lose than to win. For the league, it makes perfect sense to ignore it completely. In an age of widespread legalized gambling, it’s more important than ever that the NFL sell the notion that every team is trying its damnedest to win every game. (Even when it isn’t.)

After the meaningless Week 18 win, the Patriots finished the 2024 season at 4-13 instead of 3-14. Who cares? They also ended without the first overall pick in the draft. Every Patriots fan should care about that. Because it has kept the franchise from having a potential franchise-altering moment if it could have traded down from No. 1 — or if it could have landed Hunter or Carter.