Your thoughts on who holds the keys to the AFC East!
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By: James McKinney
Last week I asked the question-
Who is, in your opinion, the AFC East’s “team to beat” going into the 2024 season? Is it once again the Bills? Is it finally going to be our Dolphins? Will the Jets somehow figure out how to win consistently? Will the Patriots reemerge?
Below are some of your thoughts and answers-
Spok507 makes a solid point. Until the King is detroaned he’s still the king!
The team to beat is the Bills until it’s been done.
That being said, I also agree that the Fins need to beat whatever chain is hanging around their proverbial neck and stop shooting themselves in the foot. There were a myriad of excuses — too many injuries, bad play calling, defensive players under-utilized… — but excuses won’t make a team better unless they’re addressed and corrected. As excited as I was to sign Vic Fangio last year, he just didn’t work out with how this team is structured defensively. So bringing in Weaver is a correction. That’s good. Let’s see what he can do with these players and move McDaniel’s culture forward. Injuries happen to every team, but we seem to have more than most. So they brought in a lot of quality depth players for that just in case. I’d be happier if they’d taken a look at their training routine and made some changes in the way they go about keeping these guys healthy. But they did get a lot of praise from players about their facility and structure, so I’m not sure they can improve on it without a crystal ball and knowing what to look out for in the future. Again, that’s good. This will be McDaniel’s 3rd year calling plays. He’s learned a lot, adjusting to make the offense run better each year. While he still has things to learn, he’s a pretty smart guy and does seem to learn from mistakes. I’m going to assume that continues and he evolves further this season. He’s taken this team to the play-offs despite the hurdles they faced and, with a bit of luck concerning the other two (see defense and injuries), just might be able to take them further.
Call_for_the_Priest’77 thinks the Phins have to stop beating themselves to win the division.
The team to beat for us is us! As far as the AFC East is concerned, we did everything we could to give it away – and did! I’ll give Buffalo credit for running the table at the end of the year to make our collapse possible but the fault for this disaster lies with us contenders are supposed to win games late in the year, not give division titles away. Had we been functional down the stretch there is no doubt we would have won the East and I firmly believe we would have made a respectable run. IDK if we would have wound up in the superbowl but I know that nobody from the AFCE would have been in our way.
That belief holds true for this year too, if we are functional throughout the entire season! Of course this means staying healthy. This is why we have to beat ourselves, normally something you don’t want to do. To beat this scathing liability we must But this health issue is our biggest enemy, one that can get us every game and thus cannot go undefeated! Good health will have a ripple effect on the team. Most notably it will allow us to incorporate more developmental plays to run on offense. This means Tua can hold onto the ball for longer than 3 seconds if he needs to. We can still use the snap and run offense but mixing in longer plays will really discourage defenses. This should do wonders for Tua’s confidence come December time!
As for our ‘other’ competition I don’t see any other AFCE team getting in our way. NE is not likely to storm out of the gate given their issues and change of an era. NYJ conspiracy weirdo Aaron Rodgers may no longer be satisfied with the NFL MVP awards and instead try his luck at becoming Most Vice President. Either way I don’t see the Jets functionally improving enough to challenge anyone. Buffalo has lost key personnel to FA and their own cuts. They may still be good this year but we should be better.
herbert pollack is in agreement with Spok507.
Bills until they arent
sdphinsfan thinks we are in good shape if we can avoid the rash of injuries like last season, and we have to start beating the Bills.
Comes down to who can stay healthy. If it’s us, I like our chances. But here’s the thing…we need to find our big boy pants when we play the Bills. JA is a great player and a great runner. Until we punish the hell out of him for doing it, it’s probably their division to lose.
72Phins4ever is another that says the Bills until it isn’t.
Until we start beating them, the Bills.
Dolfanjoe says the Bills too.
Bills who else……………………………
daytonadolfan says the Jets will be, well the Jets…
Gotta be the Bills, Patriots are 2 years away from being relevant and the Jest’s are still and will always be…….
glen55 still gives a slight edge to the Bills.
Dolphins and Bills are the main candidates. With Miami’s free agency losses, I’d make the Bills a slight favorite.
Last year I would’ve made the Fins a slight favorite and if we somehow got a do-over of last year (i.e., if we were in an alternate universe ruled by magic) I’d still put Miami as the favorite. A bit NO on those other teams.
coach k 13, as a New Yorker, has some real hatred for the Bills.
I would say the bills, and living in NY, I say piss on the bills!!!
Well, it seems that the consensus is that the Bills are still the Kings of the AFC East until someone knocks them off. I have to agree, although I think we would have been in the driver’s seat to take the division last year had a rash of injuries to key players not slowed the team down at the end of last season. Thank you again to everyone who took the time to answer the question of the day.
Originally posted on The Phinsider
