New England Patriots 11-5 last year; 1st in the AFC East
-Season Win total this year 11 -110, -110
-Odds to win AFC East -625
-Odds to win AFC +315 favorite
-Odds to win Super Bowl 7-1 favorite
-Odds to make Playoffs -1250
-Not a ton of value on this one for me. If you're going to play this, go ahead and play them to win the AFC East at -625. If you play the -1250 to make the playoffs, you're saying the Jets, Bills, or Dolphins are going to win the AFC East, which is highly unlikely.
-You do want to monitor the Edelman injury, he's out about 3 weeks they say, and Sony Michel will begin training camp on the PUP list. But they have Damien Harris, 3rd round pick from Bama, along with James White and Rex Burkhead, so don't read too much into if Michel is out.
-Obviously no more Gronk on this team as well. They don't have anyone to just step in and take his spot, so a lot of talk about how they are going to reinvent their offensive attack. They have Ben Watson, who is suspended for the 1st 4 games of the year, and a bunch of unproven guys.
-They lost their defensive play caller, Brian Flores, who took the Dolphins head coaching job, so those calls are going to change. Word is Bill Belichick will likely call the defensive plays. He won't have a defensive coordinator per se, Belichick will be the de facto D Coordinator here.
-They also have Brett Beleima from Ark as their new DLine Coach!
Buffalo Bills 6-10 last year, 3rd in the AFC East
-Season win total this year 6.5 -182, +150
-Odds to win AFC East 12-1
-Odds to win AFC 40-1
-Odds to win Super Bowl 80-1
-Odds to make playoffs +350
-2nd season in the Josh Allen era. A lot of people were pleasantly surprised at how he played last year.
-The Bills are only favored in 1 games in weeks 1-6 and thats -4 home vs the Bengals. Not favored again until a week 7 games vs the Dolphins, so things could start out rough for this team.
-There's some talk is coach Sean McDermott coaching for his job this year if the Bills don't make the playoffs. Barring a catastrophe, I don't think so. I think Josh Allen showed enough last year that they'd like to keep that trend going in the right direction.
-One problem that they're going to have to fix is Josh Allen was their leading rusher last year. Not good for a number of reasons, injury, and the fact that he's not a running back. They are aware of this, and signed the ageless Frank Gore, TJ Yeldon and of course have the ever-injured Shady Mccoy.
-That said they were a top 5 defense last year, 2nd in yards allowed last year behind only the Ravens with the vast majority of those guys returning, so the building blocks are there, for me it comes down to are they going to have a consistent running game, and are they going to take the handcuffs off Josh Allen.
New York Jets 4-12 last year, last place in the AFC East
-Season win total this year 7.5 -110, -110
-Odds to win AFC East 7-1
-Odds to win AFC 28-1
-Odds to win Super Bowl 60-1
-Odds to make playoffs +275
-There's a lot going on w the Jets this year, bringing in LeVeon Bell, and of course head coach Adam Gase, who was once known as the QB Whisperer when he was brought to Miami. You could argue Tannehill improved somewhat, but not all that much. How much impact will Gase have on Sam Darnold. I'd argue anything is an improvement from Todd Bowles for Darnold.
-We'll see what Bell can bring them. A guy who hasn't taken a snap in almost 2 years.
-They knew they had to make improvement to the DLine and they drafted Quinnen Williams with the 3rd overall pick. He should be a stud in plugging up the middle. They also have Jamal Adams, and went out and got CJ Mosley. This was a team who was 25th in yard per game allowed on defense last year, 24th against the pass and 26th against the run. So they should be improved on defense, but all eyes will be on that Darnold-Gase combo.
-The schedule makers did them no favors. After week 1 vs Buffalo their next 5 games are against Cle, NE, Phil, Dal and NE, so a tough first half of the season.
Miami Dolphins 7-9 last year, 2nd place in the AFC East
-Season win total this year 5 +125, -150
-Odds to win AFC East 33-1
-Odds to win AFC 80-1
-Odds to win Super Bowl 125-1
-Odds to make playoffs 9-1
-All indications are this is going to be a tough year for Dolphins fans. They have the lowest season win total on the board. They have a new head coach, new QBs, and above all else the possibility of getting the number 1 pick in next year's draft.
-I actually liked the Josh Rosen trade. Buy low on a guy who was a top 10 pick just a year ago. Change of scenery will probably do him some good. Have a veteran guy in Fitzpatrick there to help him along.
-Awful news of Kendrick Norton losing his arm in a car accident and then Jim Caldwell has asked to take a leave of absence from the team due to undisclosed medical condition. Looks to be gone for the year. He was the assistant head coach, and I'm not a huge fan of him, but when you have a head coach without head coaching experience in Brian Flores, i think having Caldwell there would have been extremely beneficial.
Make sure to listen to the AFC East preview podcasts from BeatinTheBookie & TheRealMrACL. All you need to do is search "BeatinTheBookie" or
"Cue It Up & Cash It" podcast on iTunes, Spotify or any podcast provider!
PS: Just 36 days until the NFL regular season kicks off!
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