The AFC East has gone from a mediocre division to one of the best in the NFL over the course of a single offseason. Every team has a stake to claim for the division crown, and this is a way that each of them can take their division. 

New England Patriots: Mac Jones is Tom Brady reincarnated with a new offensive coordinator. 

Mac Jones looked fantastic in his rookie year, turning out to be exactly the type of player that Tom Brady was for the team in his time with the Patriots, but Jones’s production fell off a cliff in his second year due to the hiring of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as co-offensive coordinators. Jones’s system fell out from underneath him as well, with Jakobi Myers having a rough year and Rhamondre Stevenson being the best thing about that Patriots offense. This season, Jones has Bill O’Brien as his offensive coordinator, a guy who just produced one of Bryce Young’s best years at Alabama, as well as the true advent of Deshaun Watson with the Texans. If Jones can get back to where he was in 2021, he can pull a Tom Brady move and make the Patriots’ very thin receiving core look like one of the deepest in the league. 

Buffalo Bills: Allen distributes the ball.

The Bills didn’t have any kind of threat in the running game last season, as their offensive line was passable if not impressive, and their running backs didn’t do much to help out Josh Allen. Defensive schemes were able to be formed around Allen throwing the ball, which hindered the Bills’ ability to get anywhere, winning games close, and then getting stomped in the playoffs finally. If Josh Allen is able to distribute the ball more, especially to a running back of any kind, that would help the Bills to maintain their grip on this division. 

New York Jets: He’s not Brett Favre. 

The Aaron Rodgers exodus has been in the works ever since the Green Bay Packers drafted Jordan Love, and this is the year that he finally ended up on a different team. Rodgers has to hope that the abundance of weapons he has around him will break the curse of Brett Favre’s underwhelming performance with the Jets, and Gang Green can break through and break the longest playoff drought in American sports right now. 

Miami Dolphins: Tua stays healthy.

The Dolphins were looking on pace to win the AFC East last season, with the Bills caving in on themselves and their offense flying under new head coach Mike McDaniel, but that all turned downward when Tua went down with a concussion. After returning, he was not the same; before being knocked out of action again. Starting Skylar Thompson for a playoff game isn’t the way that their season was expected to go, but with Tua healthy, that offense will be able to thrive. 

The AFC East holds at least two of the top ten teams in football currently, with a fringe third looking to break into the class of elite teams in the league; and a fourth that is hungry for success and honor after a couple of losing seasons. This division will shake out as one of the most competitive in this season, and will surely be a fun one to watch.