The AFC East has been a pretty easy division to forecast over the course of the last two decades.
1st place – New England Patriots
…
Everyone else.
As a matter of fact, the Patriots have not won the division twice since 2001 — the season of their first Super Bowl of the Belichick/Brady dynasty. The Dolphins were the last team to claim the crown other that New England, that of course came in 2008 when the team went 11-5 under Tony Sparano and Tom Brady missed the season with an ACL tear.
But the rest of the division will have their day — and it may not be all that much longer of a wait. As long as Tom Brady is in house, the Patriots will rightfully be the favorite. But Tom Brady is primed to turn 42 years old before the start of the 2019 season — he cannot play forever.
And assuming Brady doesn’t play forever, the AFC East is now as well prepared for life after Brady as they have been in, well … a really, really long time.
The Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins have all taken long-term building approaches centered around quarterbacks from the 2018 NFL Draft. Three top-10 overall selections from that class now call the AFC East home — Sam Darnold in New York (3rd overall), Josh Allen in Buffalo (7th overall) and Josh Rosen in Miami (10th overall).
It’s a fascinating development, even more unique when you consider how each of the teams will look to build around their quarterback. Miami is non-committal to Rosen in the long term (at least for now) but are emphatic about their long-term rebuild. The New York Jets have spent aggressively, hoping to accelerate their timeframe to contention. The Buffalo Bills generally view the football world through the same scope as these new Miami Dolphins — they just started two years sooner and are entering year three of their own rebuild.
It’s impossible to tell whose philosophy will claim an AFC East title first. But make no mistake, it won’t be long before a divisional title is won somewhere other than Foxboro in the AFC East. This division is shaping up to be one of the more fascinating ones in all of football — as soon as Brady calls it a career.
