Bills Won't Win AFC East? Inside PFF's Bold Predictions
Over the past three years, the Buffalo Bills have emerged as the team to beat in the AFC East.
After the fall of the New England Patriots' dynasty with the departure of quarterback tom Brady, the Bills peaked at the right time to fill the power vacuum. Buffalo previously hadn't won the division since 1995, but has been far and away the class of the AFC East in the past three years. The Bills haven't just been the best team in the division, though, but one of the best in the entire NFL.
Despite the Bills' recent dominance, many are predicting them to lose their grip on the division this season. Pro Football Focus was the latest outlet to drop such a take, doing so in a "bold predictions" article.
"Buffalo has been one of the best teams in football in recent years, winning the AFC East for three straight seasons after the decline of the New England dynasty," PFF writes. "But they’ve failed to take advantage of that dominance and have yet to appear in a Super Bowl, let alone win one over that time.
"This season, the division figures to be as competitive as it has been for a long time, and it wouldn’t take much for the Bills to fail to retain their division crown, even if they still make the playoffs. There’s a solid chance that one of these AFC East teams can challenge Buffalo."
In fairness, this is probably the best the AFC East has been since the Bills' took over. The Patriots have a real offensive coordinator again in Bill O'Brien and are still led by Bill Belichick, widely seen as the greatest coach of all time. The Miami Dolphins are an extremely dangerous team when healthy, while the New York Jets added a four-time MVP quarterback in Aaron Rodgers to pair with a great defense.
On the other hand, though, there are several holes in this argument. First of all, PFF doesn't include any advanced analytics, which is what the outlet is known for, in its analysis. Secondly, the rest of the article only makes the take more confusing.
In the same article, PFF made two other bold predictions for the Bills this season. Those predictions were that rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid would surpass 1,000 receiving yards and the Bills' defense would be a top-five unit. If those predictions come true, it's hard to see the Bills not winning the division.
Furthermore, PFF also predicts that the Dolphins won't make the playoffs this season. Putting all these predictions together, PFF is saying that either the Patriots or, more likely, the Jets win the division, while the Bills either make the playoffs as a wild card or not at all. Again, that seems very hard to believe if Kincaid and the defense live up to PFF's other predictions.
Regardless of any predictions, the Bills will be out to prove the doubters wrong once they open the season against the Jets on Sept. 11.
