Predicting the records of AFC East teams

The AFC East should be an interesting division in 2022-23 as every team has improved their roster and have young players that are looking to step into their own this season. Some big moves have been made by each team and this is a division that could have multiple teams fighting for playoff spots. In this article, we are going to be breaking down the Bills division rivals and who could pose the biggest threat to the Bills’ divisional reign this season.

New York Jets record prediction: 6-11

The New York Jets will once again be led by head coach Robert Saleh and quarterback Zach Wilson – both going into their second season with the team and looking to build off of what they started last year. While Wilson mostly struggled in his rookie season, he did show some flashes of ability at times. He’s a young player and wasn’t surrounded by the best talent at the skill positions last year. He’ll be looking to take a leap going into his second year, and he now has a bit more help to make that leap realistic.

They are bringing back one of Wilson’s favorite targets in WR Braxton Berrios, and they went out and signed former Bengals tight end C.J. Uzomah. In the Draft, they picked up a couple guys that can contribute right away on offense: running back Breece Hall and wide receiver Garrett Wilson. And, with WR Elijah Moore set to break out in year two, they finally have an onslaught of weapons for their young QB.

The Jets had one of the best drafts in the league this last month, as they improved greatly on the defensive side of the ball as well. They picked CB Ahmad Gardner with their 4th overall pick, as well as edge rusher Jermaine Johnson with the 26th overall pick.

The Jets are a young team with a lot of young, highly-regarded talent. While they’re most likely not going to be making any noise this year, they will be playing with a lot of heart and promise as their youngsters will be looking to make an imprint not only on the new team, but in the league as well. The Jets will not be a team to be taken lightly this year, but I don’t see them as having enough experience to compete for the AFC East title.

New England Patriots record prediction: 8-9

While I do believe the Patriots are going to regress a little bit this year, they will still be a formidable opponent as long as Bill Belichick is around. The Patriots were relatively quiet in the offseason and their draft was… interesting. They used their first round draft pick on OL Cole Strange, which many of us, including Patriots fans, thought was a “strange” pick to say the least (pun intended). Rams HC Sean McVay was even captured on video saying, “we wasted our time watching him, thinking he’d be at #104 maybe.”

While we all had a good laugh at that, the Patriots did re-sign some key pieces to their roster including Matthew Slater, Devin McCourty and James White. They signed Ty Montgomery to give them some depth at RB/WR, CB Terrance Mitchell, as well as former Patriots Super Bowl hero, CB Malcolm Butler.

The Patriots and their fans are expecting Mac Jones to take a big leap in his second year after seeing his first season in the NFL. And while myself, and many of us have different opinions on Mac Jones’ future, his play this year will definitely be something to watch moving forward, because if Jones improves the way a lot of people think he will, then the Patriots could be a much better team in the near future.

Expect the Patriots to fall around .500 or so this year. With still not having many big names on offense and a schedule much more difficult than last year, I don’t see the Patriots having the success they had a year ago when they made the playoffs.

Miami Dolphins record prediction: 10-7

The Dolphins are the team in the division, besides Buffalo, that have made the most improvements this offseason – with the big trade acquiring Tyreek Hill from the Chiefs. Along with Hill, they added explosive running backs Raheem Mostert, Chase Edmunds andSony Michel. They re-signed tight end Mike Gesicki and they have a stud second-year WR in Jaylen Waddle on the outside as well.

On paper, this offense looks like it’s going to be very tough to stop, but the only thing that may end up stopping this offense is the guy who leads it: Tua Tagovailoa. He is and will always be the biggest question mark of how well this team performs. Even his own coaching staff and front office have indicated that they are not sold on Tagovailoa to be their franchise guy, consistently looking at other options like Deshaun Watson to take the reigns of the team. This will most likely be Tagovailoa’s last chance to put up or shut up and show that he can lead the Dolphins to the playoffs.

The Dolphins defense should be quite solid once again. They re-signed star CB Xavier Howard and DE Emmanuel Ogbah, and they added DE Melvin Ingram. On both sides of the ball the Dolphins are looking like a team that could cause some problems. Fortunately for the Bills, Josh Allen is 7-1 in his career against the Phins and it doesn’t look like he has any plans to allow the Dolphins to get a win against him any time soon.

Again, I think most would agree that this Dolphins team is a very solid team on paper, but Tagovailoa is ultimately going to be the reason why they don’t make a run deep in the playoffs. He has the weapons on offense, but lacks the arm strength and accuracy to make exciting things happen on offense. It’s up to new HC Mike McDaniel and Tagovailoa to be able to utilize those weapons now.

Buffalo Bills record prediction: 13-4

The Bills are 11-1 in divisional play the last two years and have a fairly strong hold on the AFC East right now. They are once again the favorites to win the division by a long shot. Key additions for this year include Von Miller, Jamison Crowder, OJ Howard, Rodger Saffold, Kaiir Elam, James Cook, and the list goes on. The Bills have arguably the most loaded roster from top to bottom on both sides of the ball. An elite secondary as well as a defensive front which includes a mix of young guys such as Greg Rousseau, AJ Epenesa and Boogie Basham along with veterans such as Miller, Jordan Phillips, Shaq Lawson and Tim Settle. The defense will be among the league’s best yet again.

On the offensive side, the Bills have elite playmakers such as Allen, Stefon Diggs, Dawson Knox, Crowder (who will be a sneaky-good addition), and 3rd-year WR Gabe Davis who is looking to come into his own this year as the team’s WR2 – and we all know he is capable of that.

13-4 is being modest for this team. They are absolutely capable of beating any team they play and could easily get more than 13 wins. However, with a more difficult schedule this year and improved teams all across the board, I could see them dropping a couple games. But, they are still going to be the team to beat in the AFC. Securing the #1 seed should be the highest priority coming into this year, as going into Buffalo in January and facing Josh Allen and the Bills’ defense is something that no one will want to endure.

My final thoughts for the AFC East is that the Bills will win the division for the 3rd year in a row by a couple games. The Dolphins will sneak in and grab a wild card this year and Bill Belichick will be watching the Bills on his couch this year in January. The Jets should show improvement from last year but ultimately come in 4th once again in the AFC East.