The season may be over for the teams in the AFC East but that doesn’t mean we’re done with the AFC East Roundup. For the next couple of weeks we’ll be recapping how each of the teams did in the different areas of the game. This week we’ll be starting off with offense—and it was nothing much to write home about for any of the four teams.
We’ll start with the New England Patriots because they ranked the highest out of the four teams, coming in at 15th in total offense during the regular season. The problem with the Patriots was Tom Brady didn’t have any weapons to throw to. You could clearly see that he missed Rob Gronkowski from a year ago and opposing defenses usually double-teamed Julian Edelman. As a result, the offense had trouble scoring but wasn’t under as much pressure because the defense was playing so well. That caught up to them, however, in the Wild Card game where the offense couldn’t muster more than 13 points. Look for the team to really address the wide receiver position going into the offseason, plus Brady is a free agent.
Next up we have the Buffalo Bills down in the bottom half of the league sitting at number 24. The frustrating thing for the Bills this year is that they seem to be one great receiver away from having a pretty deadly offense if Josh Allen continues to improve going into year three. The problem at times this year, however, was the play calling of offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. Take their Wild Card game where Devin Singletary had no carries in the fourth quarter and in overtime when the team was trying to hang on and then squeak out a win. The play calling has to be better but the team also has to figure out what they are offensively because there were times where they came out of the gates pass happy and others when it was ground and pound, confusing fans on game day.
The Miami Dolphins are next up on the list sitting at 27 in the league and it’s clear they have work to do on offense. When Ryan Fitzpatrick is the leading rusher on the team at the end of the season there are obvious issues to address. However, this was expected of Miami because everyone knew 2019 was a rebuilding year. The good news is after getting a contract extension, DeVante Parker looked like a stud receiver, which will help with the quarterback of the team next season.
Lastly, we come to the New York Jets who ranked last in the division and in the league in total offense. With guys like Sam Darnold and LeVeon Bell, it was a shock to a lot of people just how bad the offense seemed at times during the year and so good at others. Granted Darnold missed time earlier in the year and things were adjusting for Adam Gase since it was his first season with the team—but people expected better. Part of the problem was due to a poor offensive line that wouldn’t give Darnold time in the pocket or create holes for Bell to run through. If this team wants to get better, their focus should be on the offensive line—much like the Bills did last offseason.