NFL Division Preview: AFC East Has New Faces, Same Outlook

New England 11-5
Miami 10-6
New York 8-8
Buffalo 7-9

Daunte, Kevan and Junior. Welcome to the new and vastly improved AFC East, the division of lasting decisions. In all there were about 40 changes from teams in this division alone; however, the last name on the list may surprise you, considering Junior Seau spent the majority of his pro ball with the San Diego Chargers and was contemplating retirement. But this tidbit of information may not: Junior’s a-huntin’ for a ring. It’s the one piece of hardware (and there aren’t many left) that has eluded him all these seasons. Get the ring and the rest will take care of itself.

Not so fast. New England is not the team they once were and the shopping of wide receiver Deion Branch just further illustrates how different the AFC East – and the Patriots – will be. Then the Patriots took the field in the preseason and in the first two games scored almost 100 and allowed only 30. Then they capped the preseason by losing 31-23 to the Giants after obliterating Arizona 30-3 and the Redskins 41-0. At times Tom Brady looked more like the player of old than the player undergoing some scrutiny related to a certain Barry Bonds issue. So having Branch is a non-issue and the Pats look like they’ll return to the Super Bowl, right?

Not so fast. Miami seems to have had a resurgence with the arrival of Daunte Culpepper in the off season, however no matter how you cut it the loss of Ricky Williams will hurt the team. The good news for the Dolphins, if there is any, is that Williams is now out for the season up north and so his next game will be in the NFL, though it will be next year provided he stays clean. And the Dolphins retained most of their starters on both sides of the ball, which is lots more than what can be said for the Buffalo Bills and definitely the New York Jets, the one team probably hit hardest and helped the most by free agency.