TILT AT THE TOP
The Bills are primed to take over the division from the old-guard Patriots—the only team capable of posing a challenge
LAST JANUARY the Bills were an overtime coin f lip away from a conference title game matchup at home against the Bengals. Who knows, but if they had won the toss and gotten the ball first in overtime and beaten the Chiefs, they could well have gone on to beat Cincinnati and play in the Super Bowl—and even maybe have won it. But as much as that loss hurt, the reassuring thing about being a Buffalo fan right now is that the team seems less focused on what might have been than on what is going to come next.
This offseason the Bills added one of the greatest pass rushers in NFL history in 33-year-old Von Miller, who had 13.5 sacks last season, including four in the playoffs as he helped the Rams to the title. They also added veteran slot receiver Jamison Crowder from the Jets, bolstered their tight end depth with 2017 first-round pick O. J. Howard from Tampa Bay, added a potential premier running back with secondround pick James Cook out of Georgia and drafted a cornerback in the first round, Florida’s Kaiir Elam, who could solidify what was already one of the best secondaries in the NFL. Among the AFC elite, no team did a better job this offseason of making itself more complete than Buffalo, which, from a personnel standpoint is now neck-and-neck with the Chiefs, Bengals, Titans and Ravens.
Within the division, the Bills’ chief competition is the Patriots, who will be better than the team Buffalo pummeled 47–17 in the wild-card round in January.
In that game a Bill Belichick team was dressed down in a way not seen during the coach’s 22-year tenure in New England—or in NFL history, for that matter—as the Bills scored touchdowns on each of their seven drives. This season the Patriots brought back some names from the past in offensive tackle Trent Brown, who won a ring in Super Bowl LIII, and 32-year-old cornerback Malcolm Butler, who won a pair of titles in his first stint with the team. But the question of how much better New England will be rests on the continued development of Mac Jones. The fifth quarterback taken in the 2021 NFL draft had no business reaching the playoffs last year and finishing as the
NFL’S 15th-rated passer. If Jones improves even marginally, the Patriots—who won 10 games for the 18th time in the last 19 seasons—should at least rack up enough wins to return to the postseason. They are most likely to be a wild- card team again, but they figure to be peskier than they were last year.
At the bottom of the division, the Jets and the Dolphins are pursuing rebuilding plans with strong parallels. Both are headed by coaches plucked from the Kyle Shanahan tree. Miami hired Mike Mcdaniel, Shanahan’s longtime run-game mastermind, to be its coach. The Jets meanwhile are in Year 2 with another ex-49ers coach, former defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who brought with him a slew of coaches from that staff, including offensive coordinator Mike Lafleur. Both teams are also developing young quarterbacks: Tua Tagovailoa, who still is a question mark coming into his third season in Miami, and Zach Wilson, who needs to improve after a rough rookie season in New York. Both teams also tried to trade for Tyreek Hill, with the Dolphins’ compensation package and slightly more competitive roster (and locale?) helping to land the ex-chief. They are also both likely spectators in the division race for now, though the Dolphins should put up more of a fight in 2022.