Patriots playoff rooting guide: Who New England fans should root for on divisional round Sunday

The New England Patriots have already been eliminated from the playoffs on wild card weekend, but the playoffs moved on without them. Today, the divisional round will come to an end: the final two games will be played to decide who will advance to the conference championship games.

Who should Patriots fans root for even with their team already eliminated, though? Time to find out. Welcome to our second Patriots Playoff Rooting Guide of the week.

3:00 p.m. ET

(3) Los Angeles Rams at (2) Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Go Buccaneers! This one is pretty easy. Not only are the Buccaneers led by Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, a win over the Rams today would also help their old team: the Patriots own Los Angeles’ sixth-round pick as part of the Sony Michel trade. The earlier the Rams exit the playoffs, the better for New England’s draft pick. | NBC, Peacock, Universo

6:30 p.m. ET

(3) Buffalo Bills at (2) Kansas City Chiefs: Go... Bills? This is a tough one, given that Buffalo is one of the Patriots’ division rivals. Rooting against the team should be automatic. However, there are two arguments to be made in favor of the Bills: 1.) A win would hurt the Chiefs’ dynasty talk yet again, while 2.) A win would rob them of one additional offseason week compared to the Patriots. Those are some pretty weak arguments, yes, but they are probably still better than any that can be made in Kansas City’s favor. | CBS/Paramount+