Bills Central

Another year, another failed Jets prophecy: Bills continue to dominate AFC East

Despite what offseason discourse suggested, the AFC East is still very much the Buffalo Bills' division.

Ronnie Eastham

Chris Pedota / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Every offseason, the NFL media gravitates toward one or two teams and anoints them as division favorites and Super Bowl-bound. This happens year after year, and the 2024 offseason was no different, with many outside of the Buffalo Bills sphere suggesting that the team was doomed to fall and be replaced atop the AFC East by the New York Jets. Yet here we are entering Week 11, still waiting for the Jets to rise from the depths of irrelevancy; meanwhile, the Bills continue to own the division.

We can understand where the media was coming from though, right? The Bills lost stalwart safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde in the offseason, and Von Miller didn't look like the vaunted pass-rusher of old last year. Buffalo traded Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans in April and let former All-Pro cornerback Tre'Davious White go. Compounding the situation, once All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano sustained an offseason bicep injury that was set to sideline him for most of the 2024 campaign. Regression wasn't necessarily expected, but feasible.

Related: What Bills HC Sean McDermott said about upcoming matchup vs. Chiefs after Week 10

The Jets, all the while, were proclaimed the new division champs. Super Bowl bound, they all said. 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers was coming off an Achilles injury, but obviously nothing could go wrong there. The Jets had a terrific defense, the offensive line was improved, and they had what was believed to be one of the best duos in the backfield with Breece Hall and Braelon Allen. And we can't forget about Sauce Gardner.

Yet through 10 weeks of the season, the Jets are 3-7 and are as depressing as ever, their ineptitude only amplified by their offseason Super Bowl expectations. Buffalo, meanwhile, sits at 8-2 and is a perfect 3-0 in the AFC East. And given that we're more than halfway through the 2024 campaign and the division race is all but decided, the question has to be asked -- who could've seen this coming?

The answer is anyone paying attention. Many in the NFL seemed to overlook the fact that the Bills have Josh Allen, arguably one of the league's top two quarterbacks. The team also boasts a top-ten offensive line and one of the best corner duos in Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas. James Cook was top five last season in rushing yards and sixth in scrimmage yards yards, but they forgot about that, too. Even some Bills fans called the 2024 season a rebuild or reset year; too much dead money, no room to maneuver under the cap, and no one to replace the players the Bills moved on from.

Now 10 weeks into the 2024 season, the Bills sit alone atop the AFC East, with no team remotely close. Let's put this into context: the Bills have seven games remaining and need only three more wins to lock up the division title. The Patriots and Jets already with seven losses apiece and a sweep of the Dolphins has put the Bills in a position to win their fifth consecutive division title by the first week of December. All this serves as two reminders: never count the Bills out as long as Allen is behind center, and division titles are not won in July.

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Ronnie Eastham
RONNIE EASTHAM

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