Bills or Jets? Take your pick
The Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets are both a trendy pick to make the National Football League playoffs in 2015. After Buffalo went 9-7 in 2014, the team was almost completely remade with quarterback Kyle Orton retiring and former head coach Doug Marrone opting out of his contract on New Year’s Eve.
The Bills took advantage of the Jets letting go of their head coach, Rex Ryan, and hired the defensive guru to give Buffalo a little bit of attitude. General manager Doug Whaley aggressively upgraded the team, adding Matt Cassel and Tyrod Taylor to compete at the quarterback spot with former first-round draft pick, EJ Manuel. Whaley also traded inside linebacker Kiko Alonso for LeSean McCoy before signing Richie Incognito, Percy Harvin, Jerome Felton and Charles Clay.
Meanwhile, the Jets were hard at work fixing a team that went 4-12 a year ago. General manager John Idzik was fired and replaced by Mike Maccagnan. Maccagnan was also ultra-aggressive, landing Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles to be the new head coach. From there, the first-time general manager traded for Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brandon Marshall before signing a trio of cornerbacks in Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie and Buster Skrine.
So, which team has the best chance of reaching the postseason? Buffalo.
The Bills don’t have anything to brag about at quarterback. Right now, Cassel has the lead in this race with Taylor and Manuel following, in that order. It must be a brutal time for Manuel, who went from being a possible franchise quarterback to sitting behind a guy in Taylor who just came to town after never playing a meaningful down of football with the Baltimore Ravens.
However, the rest of the team is absolutely postseason-caliber. The receivers should be solid between Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods and Harvin, along with Clay at tight end and the dual-threat of McCoy in the backfield. Defensively, the front of Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Jerry Hughes and Marcell Dareus is lethal. Frankly, there is not a better line in the league. The secondary should be good enough with first-round picks Leodis McKelvin and Stephon Gilmore on the edges.
New York has a potent receiving corps with Marshall, Eric Decker and Jeremy Kerley, but it also has a mess at quarterback. Geno Smith got punched out by his own (former) teammate and is out 6-10 weeks. The job now belongs to Fitzpatrick, who has never been to the playoffs, unlike Cassel. The backfield is without a player like McCoy, while the defense is also set to be without Sheldon Richardson for at least four games due to suspension.
The Jets simply don’t have a pass-rush in the same league as Buffalo while also boosting a promising but unproven head coach. It would not be wise to bet on either of these teams making the playoffs because neither has a quarterback. Yet, if you had to choose, go with the Bills.
