Devin McCourty has said that the New England Patriots have been working on getting better during their playoff bye week.

The AFC East champions finished the season as the second seed in their conference, allowing themselves to sit out the wildcard round of post-season fixtures.

The defensive back told reporters: "I think the challenge for us was to come out and get better this week. I think we leave the week feeling like we did get better and now we get to relax a little bit, but I think the key right now is the playoffs.

"For us it's focusing on getting better and getting ready to go next week because once we come back in here next week it's all tilts. It's everyone all hands on deck, and we've got to be ready to go."

The Patriots will host the highest remaining AFC seed from this weekend's round of games next week.