Monday, July 21
Here is my continued first-look, first-reaction to each of the NFL divisions. Today: AFC East
1. Patriots - New England is a good team. That's more than I can say for the rest of the teams in the division. Look for the Patriots to win the AFC East title for the 13th time in the last 15 years. Tom Brady remains light years ahead of the rest of the quarterbacks in this division and should have a healthy Rob Gronkowski. The Patriots' defense should be much improved with studs Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo healthy and joined by Darrelle Revis.
2. Jets - So much for the magic of Rex Ryan as the Jets have missed the playoffs the past three seasons. They were an ugly 8-8 last year outscored by nearly 100 points. New York's secondary is weak and the offense is going to be heavily reliant on Chris Johnson, who has been a major disappointment the past couple of seasons and will be looking again at stacked defenses. Don't be surprised if the Jets open 1-6 or 2-5. Their first seven games are against the Raiders, Packers, Bears, Lions, Chargers, Broncos and Patriots.
3. Dolphins - I'm not a fan of this organization nor their quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. It remains to be seen if the Dolphins have cleaned up the stench of Bullygate and recovered from blowing a playoff spot by losing to the Bills and Jets during the final two weeks of the regular season by a combined margin of 32 points. The Dolphins didn't get nearly their money's worth from last year's big free agent spending spree and this off-season they put their bucks into often-injured Knowshon Moreno and Louis Delmas.
4. Bills - Buffalo remains consistent as in consistently bad. The Bills have missed the postseason during the past 14 seasons and have gone 6-10 each of the last three years. A lot has to break right for Buffalo to even get a sniff of .500, including hoping E.J. Manual shows big improvement, C.J. Spiller becomes an elite back and a mediocre defense can somehow get better despite the departure of Pro Bowl safety Jarius Byrd and the loss of leading tackler linebacker Kiko Alonso for the season.