AFC East Week One Look Ahead

The AFC looks again to be a one horse race with the New England Patriots tuning up for the playoffs while the other three, the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets and Buffalo Bills struggle. Two of the three, the Jets and Bills, do not even have the starting quarterback they came into the preseason with. Kevin Kolb of the Bills is out for the year with concussion problems and Mark Sanchez has an injured throwing shoulder. At least the Jets have a talented rookie in Geno Smith they can plug in and hope he learns on the fly. The Bills had one too in E. J. Manuel, but he too went down with an injury in the preseason.

So the Dolphins would appear to be in good shape for the second spot in the AFC East. They at least have Ryan Tannehill back at the starting quarterback position from a year ago. But when the other teams in your division have a combined one year of starting quarterback experience to start the season and you have Tom Brady, it just isn’t fair. That is what the Pats have.

So let’s take a look at Week One of the next Patriots march to the AFC East Title:

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills– Look for the Pats to be heavily favored in this one. If the line is under 10, jump on the Pats. Who will be the Bills starting quarterback in this game? Do we even know yet? Manuel did return to practice  on Sunday so he may be ready to go. But a rookie on a gimpy knee who missed a good chunk of the preseason does not sound like a good plan. But it does beat Jeff Tuel.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New York Jets- The Bucs are about as much of a mess as the Jets. So this game could be competitive. Josh Freeman is at a crossroads in his Bucs career. He needs to get some wins this year or he could find himself on somebody’s bench next season holding a clipboard. Darrelle Revis is supposed to make his Bucs debut this week and it is against his old team. The schedule makers have a keen sense of humor don’t they? It’s hard to say which way to bet on this one because we don’t yet know the line, but we are leaning towards the Bucs winning the game.

Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns– This game is one of the more interesting of Week One. We have two second year starting quarterbacks who had mixed results in year one. Brandon Weeden looked very good in the preseason. But we all know there is a big difference between the preseason and regular season. Tannehill also had mixed results in his rookie year. Which quarterback makes a step forward in year two? Cleveland should likely be a slight favorite in this game. We like the Browns at home. If the line is under three, we say take the Browns.