The Miami Dolphins’ work this offseason can have a number of purposes going forward, including establishing a long-term plan for success or alternatively being able to replace expensive veterans with younger, cheaper talent. But much of what Miami did this offseason came with likely one objective in mind: chasing down the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East. Buffalo finished the season at 13-3, winning the AFC East and eventually pulling away from a Miami Dolphins team that was within a few bounces of the ball of being right on Buffalo’s heels entering Week 17.
But now that Miami’s offseason plan has taken shape, what kind of favorability do the betting odds see for the Dolphins and their bid to win the AFC East in 2021? Not bad. Not necessarily good, but certainly not bad. BetMGM has the Dolphins listed at +325 to win the East, a figure that is the second-best in the division right now behind the Bills and just hardly ahead of the New England Patriots.
Buffalo is listed at -155, making them the comfortable favorite according to the books, whereas the Patriots sit at +350 as things currently stand. Across the rest of the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West are the only team with a bigger current cushion versus the rest of the field with their odds to win their division, a strong indication of how the books feel about the Dolphins and, more specifically, how strong the money has trended towards the Bills thus far this spring.
The support for Buffalo is understandable when you consider they finished 3 games ahead of Miami in the standings last year plus a head to head tiebreaker. But Buffalo’s plan this offseason appeared to be simply running it back once again in 2021, where Miami was aggressively trying to close the gap. We’ll see in the coming months just how much that gap is truly closed.
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