Patriots safety Jaylinn Hawkins leads the celebration of his interception Sunday vs. the Jets at MetLife Stadium. (AP photo)

They’ve got their AFC East Champions hats, their T-shirts, waiting for them Sunday night when they returned from the New Jersey wasteland.

What’s next?

“Now we’re back to work,” New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said on Monday.

You wouldn’t expect anything less from a team that has had the workmanlike approach ever since, it seems, Vrabel arrived nearly a year ago. And so here we are, heading into the final game of the regular season — not the entire season. For the first time in four years, there’s more football to be played for these Patriots.

It’s been awhile, four years. But it’s even been longer while since they go into a game like Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. tussle with the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium as division When they leave Gillette, they may be the No. 1 seed in the AFC if they win and Denver loses, but the Denver end is a big ‘if’.

A lot has come full circle. First, if the Bills beat the Jets (puh-lease) and the Broncos win, the guess here is it would be the Chargers who come to Gillette in nearly two weeks. Remember how badly they beat New England here a year ago? That probably was the game that ended the Jerod Mayo era.

More recent, the Patriots finished the regular season 8-0 on the road, beginning with a tight win at Miami. And now the Dolphins, 7-9, will be in frosty New England probably looking to get to their warm, off-season homes rather quickly. They got their signature win by extending Tampa Bay’s losing streak last Sunday.

It won’t be Tua Tagovailoa throwing 10-yard darts at them; instead it will be someone named Quinn Ewers, who incredibly beat the Bucs with two TDs and 173 yards. But he won’t beat the Patriots defense nor will he upstage Drake Maye.

“Hopefully we can continue to improve,” Vrabel said. “I’m really proud of this football team and what they’ve been able to do.”

And now what do they do? Focus, focus, focus.

“Being able to practice and focus on details…really focused on trying to improve late in the year,” Vrabel said.

They are banged up with receiver Mack Hollins the latest to go on IR. “From the get-go we’ve tried to focus on everybody that’s here prepare the same. … Our depth got tested.

“You have to be able to adapt, you have to be able to adjust, and the players who can play more than one position we have to ask them to do that.”

Sunday will be an interesting day. The Chargers, out of the AFC West race but in the playoffs, and have already basically shelved QB Justin Herbert for this game. The Patriots will no doubt be scoreboard watching.

You have to remember a year ago, when Drake Maye started vs. the Bills, played one series, then that was the last we saw him. Joe Milton, since exiled to Dallas, played the remainder of the game. Then a few hours later, while the media had just come up from the locker room, etc., the Patriots fired their coach.

But nobody’s getting fired on Sunday, at least not in New England. Maye is an MVP candidate, and the Patriots are a team many think will make it to the Super Bowl. Denver has to be their chief competition, but we say if the Broncos don’t get the top seed they aren’t making the AFC title game. We say Jacksonville may be the prime contender. Certainly not the Steelers or Ravens, who have bumbled their way to a game Sunday night for a division title. And we don’t think Buffalo. The Bills are just missing something this season, even though they were their gritty selves when they won at Gillette last month.

Nope. Things are looking incredible. The schedule helped. And get this — Vrabel is saying almost the same thing about his QB that a guy named Belichick used to say about a guy named Brady.

“There’s nobody else that we want or that I want as our quarterback,” Vrabel said after the Jets win.

“I try to be myself every day, and try not to change,” Maye said. “Just trying to prepare the same every week and not change that part of it. … Go out there and have some fun.”

They’ll have that fun on Sunday, you can be sure. And we feel there’s a lot more fun that awaits.

This weeks rankings:

AFC

1. New England (13-3). Denver (13-3). 3.Jacksonville (12-4). 4.Houston (11-5)4. Buffalo (12-4).

NFC

1.Seattle (13-3). 2. San Francisco (12-4) 3. L.A. Rams (11-5). 4.Chicago (11-5). Philadelphia (11-5).