New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft turned to Rob Gronkowski on Wednesday and said, “We’re playing the Jets, can we make it a two-day contract?”

Don’t worry, Robert, you won’t need the return of Gronk. He’ll ring the bell at the top floor of the lighthouse and give the fans a thrill as he retired a Patriot yesterday. That will be his contribution.

The Jets and their quarterback, Justin Fields, are terrible. They beat the Browns last week with a couple of special teams scores, and it helped that the Browns are equally abysmal.

And your football team, Robert Kraft, is a Super Bowl contender, hands down. The Jets simply won’t be able to match points.

Gronkowski at Wednesday’s gathering had the best comment that fits these Patriots to a T.

“When you play together as a team, come together as a team, you don’t need that big-time player,” Gronkowski said.

“He’s actually one of a kind, I don’t think he’s ever had a bad day. If it’s true there’s an afterlife, I think we’d all like to come back as Gronk.”

And nobody should want to come back as a Jet.

Here’s this week’s picks, a few days early early since we have the Patriots playing tonight

PATRIOTS 30, JETS 7

Blowout city. Now the football won’t be pretty, simply because it’s such a quick turnaround. Thursday night games are never pretty. But the Jets stink. Aaron Glenn is being a jerk with the media, and that’s the sign of a sinking ship. He needs a quarterback, but the Jets have needed one since Joe Namath left, right?

CHIEFS 17, BRONCOS 14

Kansas City, if the season were to end today, wouldn’t be in the playoffs. How about that, huh? That’s a little bit of desperation that they haven’t had in ages. Denver didn’t look good at home last Thursday – there you go, Pats fans – so that may be a trend.

CHARGERS 24, JAGUARS 17

The Jags aren’t scoring a ton, and we hate going against a Jim Harbaugh team. This could be the beginning of a downward slide that knocks Trevor Lawrence & Co.out of the postseason, but there’s a long way to go.

LIONS 27, EAGLES 17

Philly is tough defensively, but Dan Campbell is one tough coach who will make sure his team is the same way. The Eagles won a tough road game Monday night at Lambeau but they’re going to need more than 10 points in the dome.

RAMS 35, SEAHAWKS 32

Two of the best teams in the NFC. It’s starting to look like one of these two will be in the Super Bowl, and we’ll see why we think it very well could be the Matt Stafford and the Rams. Sam Darnold seems to fold in the biggies, as good as he’s gotten.

BILLS 17, BUCS 16

Boy we’re going to be watching the Bills like hawks the next few weeks before that Dec. 15 showdown with the Patriots at Gillette. Tampa wasn’t counting on that loss to the Patriots; the Bills certainly weren’t counting on the loss at Miami. Can you imagine if they lose to Tampa at home? It’s enough to make the fans want to fire Sean McDermott and hire Brian Daboll (Don’t do it, Terry Pegula).

DOLPHINS 23, COMMANDERS 17

This won’t be as easy as the win over Buffalo was for the Dolphins, but this is their chance to catch lightning in a bottle. Dan Quinn is taking over the Washington defense, so watch out. Which team that impacts more we can’t quite figure out.

LASTWEEK: 5-2

SEASON: 46-24

Tom King may be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow King on X (@Telegraph_TomK).