The New England Patriots will consider resting their starters in Week 17.
The Patriots have already clinched a first round bye and could secure homefield advantage with a win over the New York Jets in Week 16.
"We do the best we can to manage all those things (nagging injuries, more serious injuries and players coming back to action)," Bill Belichick explained to reporters on a conference call Monday. "They're all somewhat of a consideration. We just gotta try to balance it. Each part of the question requires some thought and every decision impacts other things as well. You can't act independently. When one thing happens, there's a residual effect to it one way or another.
"We'll just have to do the best we can to balance all those things out. It's something we'll have to give some thought to and get as much information as possible because there are some guys that are in various states of physical health."
