Are Patriots Planning Trick-Play Sendoff For Matthew Slater?

Though he wouldn’t confirm it, everyone in and around the Patriots organization seems to believe Sunday will be the final game of Matthew Slater’s career.

New England may have something special up its sleeve to commemorate the moment.

The Boston Globe’s Christopher Price on Friday reported the Patriots “are going to try and do something along the lines of the (Doug) Flutie Drop Kick for Slater” during their Week 18 matchup with the New York Jets at a potentially snow-covered Gillette Stadium.

“Not sure what that exactly might entail, especially in the snow,” Price added. “But I’ve been told that possibility is out there.”

The Patriots let Flutie, then a 43-year-old backup quarterback, attempt a drop-kick extra point in the 2005 season finale. He made it, triggering the widest in-game smile of Bill Belichick’s coaching career.

What might a designed play to Slater look like? Maybe a fake punt pass to the ace gunner. Or, the Patriots could even insert Slater at his listed position of wide receiver and dial up a deep ball to him.

Slater has caught just one pass in his 16-year Patriots career: a 46-yard bomb from Tom Brady in a 2011 win at Miami. The 38-year-old has not been targeted in the passing game since 2016 and has not played an offensive snap in a non-kneeldown situation since 2019, when New England briefly experimented with using him as a goal-line lead blocker.

The only touchdown of Slater’s career came in 2019, when the 10-time Pro Bowler scored off a blocked punt against Buffalo.

Of course, the widespread assumption that this will be Slater’s swan song will have the Jets on guard for trickeration. But it wouldn’t be surprising if the Patriots found some way to get the ball in their longtime special teams captain’s hands on Sunday.