{"id":645296,"date":"2026-01-01T10:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645296\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T10:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:11:11","slug":"nfl-picks-week-18-patriots-vs-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645296\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL picks Week 18: Patriots vs. Dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"HEST5KVOK5AUPA77VHKDKZELA4\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/\">Patriots<\/a> wrap up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/sports\/2025\/12\/from-chasing-the-no-1-pick-to-the-no-1-seed-the-patriots-turnaround-is-stunning.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/sports\/2025\/12\/from-chasing-the-no-1-pick-to-the-no-1-seed-the-patriots-turnaround-is-stunning.html\">their regular season<\/a> on Sunday still with a chance to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/patriots-win-afc-east-what-they-need-to-earn-the-no-1-seed.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/patriots-win-afc-east-what-they-need-to-earn-the-no-1-seed.html\">get the top seed in the AFC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2UNGXGEECJCZ3JQ2PRYNMPIJOY\">New England must beat the Miami Dolphins and the Denver Broncos must lose to the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers, with the seed out of reach for them, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/chargers-will-rest-starting-qb-vs-broncos-as-denver-goes-for-afcs-top-seed.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/chargers-will-rest-starting-qb-vs-broncos-as-denver-goes-for-afcs-top-seed.html\">will rest quarterback Justin Herbert<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"H2BNZAJI5REVFO2QWFHXJ3VUMU\">The Patriots could get healthier for their finale including the potential returns of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/will-campbell-injury-update-patriots-expect-rookie-to-return-this-week.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/will-campbell-injury-update-patriots-expect-rookie-to-return-this-week.html\">Will Campbell<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/patriots-roster-moves-could-signal-the-addition-of-major-reinforcements.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/12\/patriots-roster-moves-could-signal-the-addition-of-major-reinforcements.html\">Milton Williams<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/topic\/drake-maye\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/topic\/drake-maye\/\">Drake Maye<\/a> has one more week to further prove his case for MVP.<\/p>\n<p>Follow along with our picks for every pro football all season long in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2025\/08\/register-for-masslives-pro-football-u-pick-em-challenge-sponsored-by-mgm-springfield.html?contestid=3#fans\/vips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MassLive\u2019s \u201cPro Football U Pick \u2018Em Challenge\u201d sponsored by MGM Springfield<\/a>. You can test your football knowledge against our experts and win weekly and season-long prizes. You can still sign up and join the fun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"KA5MMQRFCZFY7COXZQ6STXJO2E\">It\u2019s been a trying 2025 for the Dolphins, who will start rookie Quinn Ewers at quarterback for the third time. With his limited cold-weather experience, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see him struggle, especially against a Patriots defense that could be getting some big reinforcements. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"TALD6XEWEFABZI6L2FYLOO4CWI\">New England\u2019s offense has been firing on all cylinders and has scored at least 30 points in three of its last four games. Maye\u2019s 76.5 QBR ranks first in the NFL and the offense is averaging 374.5 yards per game. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"Y4VKNAGCNFDI7CQ46AEG7BUPXE\">The Patriots have a lot to play for going into Week 18, while the Dolphins are just trying to get to 2026. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"DFNH56WMHVFX7HQ5N7OW5KDNQM\">Final score prediction: Patriots 42, Dolphins 15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Patriots wrap up their regular season on Sunday still with a chance to get the top seed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6,31185],"class_list":{"0":"post-645296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nflraw25"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115819308438181722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}