The Fate of the AFC Least

With the recent  news of Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill needing season ending knee surgery, it seems as if the AFC east might be as lopsided as ever this season.  As if it wasn’t easy enough for the Patriots to win the division 14 out of the last 16 seasons, they had to just hand over the 15th before the season started. This makes the case for an undefeated season even more plausible.  Now this also makes the thought of 16-0 a little scarier because as every seasoned Pats fan knows, they’re usually due to blow one division game to a horrible team every year.  Lets’s take a look into what competition they might have this season.

Miami Dolphins: The Dolphins looked as if they could be a potent team this season, with the development of Tannehill, the explosion of Jay Ajayi last season, and talent in receivers like Jarvis Landry, Kenny Stills, and DeVante Parker, and lastly the addition of once top tier tight end Julius Thomas, the Dolphins offense looked very dangerous coming into this season.  Now with Tannehill done and Jay Cutler in for the year, it doesn’t look quite as scary.  Yeah Cutler played under Adam Gase before, and that worked out so well for them the first time right?

Look at all the rings and playoff success they had together.  If you didn’t catch the sarcasm, these two together in the division shouldn’t scare anyone because if they couldn’t get it done before, nothing should change about that now.  Cutler retired for a reason, so don’t be surprised around week six when Matt Moore is named the new starting QB in Miami.  Predicted Record: 7-9

Buffalo Bills:  The Bills were active in the first week of preseason football also.  What did they do you ask? Well they traded away their best wide receiver and cornerback of course! What is more Bills than that.  Giving up on Sammy Watkins, and trading away Ronald Darby, who had played very well opposite of Stephon Gilmore the past two years.  So they traded him for Jordan Matthews, who is a very good receiver, but I don’t think he has anywhere near the potential of Watkins.  The one positive is that he definitely stays healthier.  Tyrod Taylor still has to get the ball to him without getting sacked.  And LeSean McCoy aging at 29, and his injury history always looming, they don’t have Mike Gillislee any longer to save the.  But don’t worry, they got E.J. Gaines from the Rams, one of the most scored on secondaries in football last season!  Look for 36 year old Anquan Boldin to be an impact player on this team this year though, most likely more impactful than Jay Cutler. Predicted Record: 5-11

New York Jets:  There’s not much to be said here.  They blew up the roster and everyone knows it.  Fitzpatrick gone. Marshall and Decker gone.  Davis Harris and Revis gone.  and now Quincy Enunwa will most likely miss the season, giving Josh McCown the choice of practice dummy’s with no arms, or opposing cornerbacks to throw the ball to.  We all know poor McCown is gonna get concussed behind that o-line per usual, and maybe we’ll have the pleasure of seeing Christian Hackenberg this year.  If it were not for all the talent on their defensive line, looking at this roster on paper could make the blind cringe.  The only hope is that Austin Sefarian-Jenkins can get drunk enough to make this team interesting.  But because its too heinous to predict anybody to go winless, Predicted Record: 1-15

Written By: Jake Kobierski (@TheRealKobe83)