AFC East: Where do the Jets and Bills Go From Here?
The regular season is over and the NFL Playoffs start this weekend. There are no AFC East teams in action. Why? That’s because one team in the AFC East is resting up awaiting a home game in the second round. That team is of course, the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots. After week six when the entire division was 3-3, the cream rose to the top. The Pats lost only once the rest of the way to finish 12-4 and get a first round bye.
The New York Jets, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills stumbled from there. The Dolphins finished second at 7-9. That was one game better than they finished a year ago. But the Dolphins still could not quite get it done in critical games where they could have stayed in the playoff race. One of those was against the Indianapolis Colts when both teams came in at 4-3. The Colts won a close game that day, making the big plays when they had to. From there they went on to make the playoffs while the Dolphins floundered, going 2-5 between week eight and week 14. But rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill had a good rookie season, even though nobody noticed. So the Dolphins may be on the way up.
The Jets and Bills? Both went 3-7 in the last 10 weeks. Chan Gailey was fired after the season as Bills coach. So as of right now, the Bills have no leader. Which direction do they go from here? They have a star running back in C. J. Spiller they can build around there. Perhaps an offensive coach such as Chip Kelly from the University of Oregon? Buffalo’s defense was atrocious this season. That is the unit that really needs help.
The Jets were just a joke. They brought in Tim Tebow before the season, a quarterback that took a 1-4 Denver Broncos team to a playoff win a year ago and along the way, beat the Jets, for no apparent reason. They had every opportunity to bench starter Mark Sanchez, who stunk it up from week one all the way through the season, but never did. There was absolutely no reason not to try Tebow at quarterback other than stupidity or stubbornness. If there was a coach that deserved a firing, it was Rex Ryan. He turned in one of THE WORST coaching jobs in NFL history this year. Yet he keeps his job while Lovie Smith, who won 10 games in Chicago, gets fired?
