AFC East 2024 Division Preview and Prediction (2024)

Welcome to the NFL Division Preview Series here at The Wright Way Sports Network. This is an eight-part series previewing all eight NFL divisions ahead of Opening Night Kickoff on September 5th. In each division preview, we’ll take a look at each division’s top players, the schedule for each team in each division, each of the division’s 12 matchups in the regular season, and I’ll end each division preview by revealing my division predictions. Today, we begin the Division Preview Series with the AFC East, The Division of Finesse.

Here is the schedule of when each division preview will be released on The Wright Way Sports Network and twsn.net.

August 14th: AFC East

August 17th: AFC North

August 19th: NFC West

August 22nd: AFC West

August 25th: NFC East

August 27th: NFC North

August 30th: AFC South

September 2nd: NFC South

The best division in the NFL, going into the 2023 season, was the AFC East. With Josh Allen, Tua Tagovailoa and Aaron Rodgers all in the AFC East, the division seemed poised to send three teams to the Playoffs and, potentially, have all four teams finish with winning records. But it wasn’t just Allen, Tagovailoa and Rodgers that had hopes high in Buffalo, Miami and New York. Those three teams all had very talented rosters going into 2023, on both sides of the ball. Even New England had a glimmer of hope of being competitive with a stingy defense and new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.

All the hype centered around Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. Miami was the Ferrari of the AFC East, racing out to a fast start that peaked with a 70-point game in Week 3. But you know who didn’t get a lot of attention leading up to the 2023 season? The team that entered with three straight AFC East titles, the Buffalo Bills. And you know what? That was fine by them because when it mattered most, they would be the best team in the AFC East. The Jets and Dolphins would win the battles, but the Bills would win the war.

The AFC East, ultimately, came down to Buffalo and Miami ,with the Bills beating the Dolphins in Miami, on Sunday Night Football in Week 18, to win their fourth straight AFC East title. After all the hype surrounding the Jets heading into the season and how fast Miami got out of the gate, it was Buffalo who played the best when it mattered most. When the AFC East was on the line,

Buffalo rose to the occasion and kept their seat on the throne.

I have a similar feeling about the AFC East going into the 2024 season. Remember how Aaron Rodgers and the Jets grabbed all the headlines going into the 2023 season? Well, they’re grabbing all the headlines, yet again, heading into the 2024 season. Remember how fast Miami

looked through the first 13 weeks of the season in 2023? Well, they should be the fastest team in the NFL, again, this season. But guess who’s not getting any attention, in the AFC East, going into the 2024 season? Buffalo. And guess what? They’re just fine with that.

Even though the Jets, for obvious reasons, got stronger this offseason to generate the same hype going into this season as the hype they had going into last season, they’re not the team to beat. The Bills are still the team to beat. They are the four-time defending AFC East Champions. And the best part for the Bills is it feels like they’re being overlooked. That’s fair, considering they lost their top two wide receivers and a large part of their secondary. But Josh Allen is still there. So is Sean McDermott. They’re the only proven team in the AFC East going into 2024. The Dolphins and Jets still need to prove themselves. The Patriots are rebuilding. Just as I thought going into 2023, the Bills can just as easily win the AFC East as the Dolphins and Jets can lose the AFC East.

Aaron Rodgers returning is, no doubt, the biggest storyline in the AFC East. But my guard is up when it comes to Rodgers returning instantly making the Jets Super Bowl contenders. Rodgers is now 40 years old, and his offensive line is still a major concern. As we saw four plays into 2023, one missed block at left tackle can derail Rodgers’s, and the Jets, entire season.

The Jets still managed to beat the Bills in that Week 1 game in 2023, but that was just a one game battle that was part of a 17-game war of attrition. Buffalo was built for that war of attrition. The Jets were not. And I’m not sure if they are built for it this season, either. Again, the Bills are not getting a lot of attention going into this season. But considering they have fallen short of massive Super Bowl expectations the last few seasons, they might be just fine with the lack of attention. The Jets have the hype. The Dolphins have the speed. The Bills have the throne.

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Top 16 Players in the AFC East

For each division, the top players will be revealed as they were ranked in NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2024. This year, 16 players from the AFC East made the list as voted by NFL players themselves. Here are the top 16 players from the AFC East.

1. Tyreek Hill – Wide Receiver, Miami Dolphins (Top 100 Players of 2024 Ranking: #1) • First-team All-Pro

• 8th Pro Bowl selection

• Led the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards

• Co-led the NFL with 13 touchdowns

Hill proved himself as the best wide receiver in the NFL in 2023, at one point being in the conversation to be the first receiver in NFL history with 2,000 yards in a season. His speed and explosive playmaking are a big part of the Dolphins lightning-quick offense that ranked No. 1 in yards per game in 2023. The Dolphins gave Hill a three-year, $90 million extension after he wasnamed No. 1 on the Top 100 Players of 2024. Another big season is expected as Hill heads into his third season in Miami.

2. Josh Allen – Quarterback, Buffalo Bills (Top 100 Players of 2024 Ranking: #12) • 4,306 passing yards (4th in NFL)

• 29 passing touchdowns (T-5th in NFL)

• 524 rushing yards (4th among NFL QBs)

• 15 rushing touchdowns (Co-led NFL QBs)

Over the Bills last seven games of the regular-season, Allen played like an MVP. Allen threw for 10 touchdowns and rushed for eight more. He was even better in the Playoffs, throwing for four touchdowns and rushing for three more. When he’s at his best, he is an MVP-caliber quarterback. He’ll enter 2024, though, without his top two wide receivers of the last three seasons in Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis. If he’s an MVP-caliber quarterback, he’ll need to prove that this season as he works with a new cast of receivers.

Team Schedules

Now we get to each team’s schedule in the AFC East. This is where we take a look at each team’s schedule and talk about their Week 1 matchup, their toughest stretch, marquee game(s) for each team and each team’s got-to-have-it game.

Buffalo Bills

Unlike the last two seasons, the Bills have a lay-up in Week 1 this season when they host the Arizona Cardinals. However, it is essential they win that game. The Bills toughest stretch comes immediately after Week 1, and they will only get four days to prepare for the start of it when they take on the Dolphins on Thursday Night Football in Week 2. That game is in Miami, part of a stretch of four road games in five weeks. In addition to Miami, the Bills will play at Baltimore on Sunday Night Football in Week 4… also on a short week. That game is also the first of three straight road games with the Bills traveling to Houston in Week 5 and the the Jets for a Monday Night Football matchup in Week 6. Four road games in five weeks- three of which are prime time games- with two of them on a short week and the last three played in succession makes for a brutal stretch in the first third of the season for the Bills.

There’s only one answer to which game is the Bills marquee game of the season. It’s Week 11 when they host the Chiefs, a 4:25 game on CBS. The Bills have been great against the Chiefs in the regular-season, beating them in each of the last three regular-seasons at Arrowhead Stadium. Now, they get the Chiefs at home this regular-season.

Even though the Bills have a brutally difficult stretch from Week 2-Week 6, their schedule won’t lighten up after that. The Bills head to Seattle in Week 8, Los Angeles to take on the Rams in Week 14 and Detroit in Week 15. The game at the Rams is a 4:25 game on FOX, and the Lions game is a 4:25 game on CBS. Not to mention, the Bills play the 49ers on Sunday Night Football at home in Week 13.

So when it comes to which game the Bills have to have, I’m going to go with their Week 3 game against the Jaguars on Monday Night Football. It’s the Bills only home game in a five-week stretch and only home prime time game out of four total prime time games the Bills will play in the five-week stretch between Weeks 2-6. They have to win at home against a team that’s a wild card coming into the season. The Bills will also be on a mini-bye coming into this game, having played on Thursday Night Football the week before. Considering the Bills only other home prime time game is against the 49ers- Sunday Night Football in Week 13- they need to win against the Jaguars in Week 3 on Monday Night Football. It would be a good win against a quality opponent, and it could prove vital when it comes to playoff tiebreakers at the end of the regular season.

Miami Dolphins

One of the flip-a-coin games in Week 1 is the Dolphins hosting the Jaguars. I really don’t know what to expect in that game. It’s two teams who are mysteries coming into the season, and there’s no distinct advantage because both teams hold their respective Training Camps in Florida.

But if the Dolphins can’t win that game, they are in, potentially, already a desperate situation just in Week 2. That game against the Bills, on Thursday Night Football, is so important in the Dolphins quest to win the AFC East. If they win, they will have taken care of business at home against the Bills and have a leg up on them early in the season. If they lose, they’re not just a game behind Buffalo in the standings. They will have lost to them at home and will have shown, once again, that they can’t get past the Bills in the AFC East. That home game holds so much weight for the Dolphins, and the pressure is on them. Not the Bills. If the Dolphins are going to dethrone the Bills, they need to beat them at home in prime time. This is their marquee game of the season.

The game the Dolphins need to win is Week 4 against the Titans, on Monday Night Football. In Week 14 of the 2023 season, the Dolphins blew a 14-point lead to the Titans with less than three minutes to play. The Dolphins ended up tied with the Bills at 11-6 at the end of the regular season, with the Bills winning the AFC East on the tiebreaker of sweeping the Dolphins. If the Dolphins hadn’t blown that lead to the 4-8 Titans, they would have won the division. They can’t afford to lose to the Titans at home, on Monday Night Football, again this season.

The Dolphins last six games are brutal. It starts with a Thanksgiving night game at Green Bay, continues with a home game against the Jets in Week 14, and then the Dolphins go to Houston in Week 15. The big measuring stick will be Week 16 when the Dolphins host the 49ers, a 4:25 game on CBS. The Dolphins end the season with two road games, a Week 17 Sunday Night Football game at Cleveland and a Week 18 game at the Jets. That’s four road games in the last six weeks, and none of those road games are easy. And the home games against the Jets and the 49ers aren’t exactly sure-fire wins, either.

New England Patriots

The Jerod Mayo era kicks off in The Jungle when the Patriots take on the Bengals in Cincinnati in Week 1. That will be very difficult for the Patriots new-look roster and coaching staff, and it won’t get any easier after Week 1.

The Patriots don’t have their bye week until Week 14, and their schedule leading up to that week is wicked. They’re home to Seattle in Week 2, at the Jets on Thursday Night Football in Week 3, at San Francisco in Week 4, home to Miami in Week 5, home to the Texans in Week 6 and then at London in Week 7 to face the Jaguars. Weeks 8-10 are a little lighter with the Jets (home), Titans (road) and Bears (road), but Week 11 is a home game against the Rams and Week 12 is at Miami.

Weeks 1-7, specifically, are not a kind start to the season or the Jerod Mayo era. For a team that doesn’t have a talented roster or any expectations going into 2024, making out of that stretch 3-4 or 2-5 would be viewed as a positive for the Patriots.

If you’re my age, then you grew up with the Patriots as the cream of the crop in the NFL. Now, they’re going to be the inferior team against nearly every team they play in 2024. It’s weird. So, what’s their marquee game? Any game could be viewed as their marquee game. They only play one primetime game- Week 3 at the Jets on Thursday Night Football. But they still play at the 49ers in Week 4, at the Bengals in Week 1 and they host Houston in Week 6.

There are no easy games on the schedule for the Patriots this season. So in terms of a “got-to have-it” game, which game could that be? Considering they’re going to be underdogs in just about every single one of them, there really isn’t one of those games. I would say Seattle at home in Week 2 could come close to being that game because it’s an inter-conference game and Seattle will be traveling across the country. But this schedule does not do the Patriots any favors as they turn a page in their franchise’s history.

New York Jets

We will get a front-row seat to Aaron Rodgers and the Jets through the first 11 weeks of the 2024 season. The Jets have six prime time games and a London game in the first 11 weeks, and it starts on Monday Night Football, in Week 1, when they face the 49ers in San Francisco. Every game the Jets play in, especially in the first 11 weeks, is a marquee game. But there are also games they should, and need to, win in that stretch. The home games in Week 3 against the Patriots- on Thursday Night Football- and the Broncos in Week 4 are games the Jets should win.

What if I told you the Jets toughest stretch is AFTER Week 11? Their last six games, after their Week 12 bye, is tough. It starts in Week 13 when the Jets host the Seahawks, but then the Jets

play at Miami in Week 14 and at Jacksonville in Week 15. The Jets return home to face the Rams in Week 16, they’re at Buffalo in Week 17, and they close the regular-season at home against the Dolphins. That’s four games against playoff teams or teams that finished with winning records in that final six-game stretch.

But it all starts Week 1 at the 49ers. That’s the marquee game. Why? Because the Jets, namely Aaron Rodgers, can’t play marquee games if they can’t get through that game. There’s so much uncertainty around how Rodgers’s season is going to unfold, and there is that worry that something catastrophic could happen again. Plus, this is the 49ers, the reigning NFC Champions. If the Jets are going to be a contender this season, this is the team to prove it against. Not only that, but this game will be played near Rodgers’s hometown in northern California as he makes his return from a ruptured Achilles.

Once again, the Jets enter the season with hype and expectations. The NFL has given them plenty of opportunities in the prime time and national spotlight right out of the gate. The Jets are going to be fun to watch, whether it will be because they are contenders or unraveling, yet again, as the season goes on. And it all starts in Week 1, at the 49ers, on Monday Night Football.

2024 AFC East Matchups

These are the 12 divisional matchups in each division in the regular-season. Here are the 12 matchups in the AFC East in the 2024 NFL Season.

1. Week 2: Buffalo Bills @ Miami Dolphins – Thursday Night Football (8:15 p.m. on Prime Video)

2. Week 3: New England Patriots @ New York Jets – Thursday Night Football (8:15 p.m. on Prime Video)

3. Week 5: Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots (1 p.m. on FOX)

4. Week 6: Buffalo Bills @ New York Jets – Monday Night Football (8:15 p.m. on ESPN) 5. Week 8: New York Jets @ New England Patriots (1 p.m. on CBS)

6. Week 9: Miami Dolphins @ Buffalo Bills (1 p.m. on CBS)

7. Week 12: New England Patriots @ Miami Dolphins (1 p.m. on CBS) 8. Week 14: New York Jets @ Miami Dolphins (1 p.m. on CBS)

9. Week 16: New England Patriots @ Buffalo Bills (1 p.m. on CBS)

10. Week 17: New York Jets @ Buffalo Bills (1 p.m. on CBS)

11. Week 18: Buffalo Bills @ New England Patriots (TBD)

12. Week 18: Miami Dolphins @ New York Jets (TBD)

2024 AFC East Predictions

We’ve now reached the part all of you have been anticipating. This is where I predict the division standings. All of my division predictions reflect my entire 2024 NFL Season Predictions, with the full predictions being revealed the day before the season on Wednesday, September 4th.

1. Buffalo Bills (12-5) – #4 seed

2. New York Jets (10-7) #7 seed

3. Miami Dolphins (7-10)

4. New England Patriots (2-15)

The Buffalo Bills are the kings of the AFC East. They’ve won the division four straight seasons. The Jets and the Dolphins may have hype, speed and higher expectations than the Bills going into this season. But the Bills have the pedigree. They have what the Jets and Dolphins don’t have, and that’s being the team that enters this season as the four-time defending AFC East champions. To be the best, you have to beat the best.

Buffalo can just as easily win the AFC East as the Jets and Dolphins can both lose the division. We saw that happen in 2023, with the Dolphins blowing a three-game lead in the division with just five games to go in the regular-season. What have the Jets and Dolphins each proven in terms of being able to win the division? I think the Dolphins, actually, are going to take a step back this season. Teams will find ways to slow them down, and Tua Tagovailoa has to prove he can stay healthy for another full season.

Even though they lost a lot on both offense and defense, the Bills are the most proven team in the AFC East. When push came to shove, they have emerged as the best team in the division in each of the last four seasons. They will make it five straight in 2024, winning the war of attrition in the AFC East.