AFC East Odds 2021: Can anyone challenge the Bills?
It’s certainly been a busy off-season within the AFC East. Dominated by the New England Patriots for years, the Buffalo Bills are currently the favorite to win the division at -155. That’s just barely less than the defending Super Bowl Champs to win their division with far less talent in my opinion.
The Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots are currently tied with the Miami Dolphins at +350 to jump the Bills and take the division.
Those are pretty low odds for two teams who don’t know who their starting quarterback will be next season. There were a lot of reports coming from Miami last season that certain members of the coaching staff were already out on Tua Tagavailoa.
The Dolphins supposedly got rid of one of the main coaches against Tua so it will be interesting to see what kind of chance they give the second-year quarterback. While I’m not ready to give up on him, he didn’t display almost any of the traits that made him a desirable prospect; his ability to make plays outside of the pocket, as well as a deep ball.
The Dolphins clearly still aren’t sure, as they went out and signed Jacoby Brissett in free agency. Brissett has played the role of backup well everywhere he’s gone so far, including New England and Indianapolis. It’s worth nothing Brian Flores was on the coaching staff when Brissett was on the roster with New England.
If we’re going to see the deep ball from Tagavailoa it’ll be this year, as the Dolphins went out and signed one of the best deep-ball catchers in the NFL over the past few seasons when healthy; Will Fuller.
It remains to be seen how much longer the Dolphins coaching staff will continue to roll with Tua, but if the signing of Brissett, it might not be long, as the Dolphins think the rest of their team is ready to win now.
New England was also quite busy, bringing back Cam Newton, as well as signing him some weapons like Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne at receiver. They also beefed up the tight end position by signing Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry. While Henry has been plagued by injuries over his career, I still think he can be a top tight end the league.
They also added Matthew Judon on the defensive side of the ball, as well as the versatile Jalen Mills while bringing back Kyle Van Noy after Miami cut him.
The pieces New England added aren’t necessarily glamorous ones, but the roster will be far and away better than it was last season.
In a season where Bill Belichick basically mailed it in and had arguably the worst skill position players in the entire league, he still won seven games. I’m not sure if they’ll be in contention with the Bills for the division, especially after quarterback Josh Allen looked like a possible candidate for Most Valuable Player. But I do think they’ll be better than last season.
Meanwhile, the New York Jets are currently listed at +1500 to win the division. At that number, you would basically be hoping you take it at +1500 and hope they acquire a guy like Deshaun Watson and the odds go down. Even then, I don’t think Watson would be the solution to ALL of New York’s problems and with his off-field issues - that looks like an ever-increasing long-shot.
