Every year, NFL teams see a change of fortune. Some make the move from the bottom of a division to the top, while others fall from grace and crash from first to worst. With improvements by teams who were also-rans last year, the ability to stay at the top can be tenuous.
Hall of Fame executive Gil Brandt via NFL.com wrote an article examining which 2020 divisional champs have the most difficult path to staying on top of their respective divisions in 2021.
The good news for Buffalo Bills fans: Brandt sees the Bills as moderately vulnerable in failing to repeat as champs of the AFC East. Of the eight divisional winners, Brandt ranks the Bills in the bottom portion of most vulnerable teams to repeat, ranking Buffalo sixth.
Brandt sees New England and Miami as the biggest threats to the Bills supremacy. Here’s what the analyst wrote about Buffalo’s path to repeating as divisional champs:
With all their key players returning and Josh Allen rising to top-tier status at quarterback, the Bills are primed to reach the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1993 season. But the Dolphins and Patriots won’t make the journey easy. The roster retooling that Miami began in 2019 is ready to really bear fruit, although I do still have questions about Tua Tagovailoa after a shaky rookie year, especially after watching Justin Herbert — whom the Dolphins passed on in favor of Tagovailoa at fifth overall — win Offensive Rookie of the Year with the Chargers. QB issues also dog New England, with the selection of Mac Jones in the first round of this year’s draft accelerating the clock on the Cam Newton era, though the offense should rebound following much-needed upgrades across the depth chart.
Buffalo’s quarterback situation is by far the best among all AFC East teams. In addition, the Bills’ roster, as a whole, is among the best in the league. Even with the upgrades of their rivals, Buffalo is still the favorite to win their second consecutive divisional crown.
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