AFC East: Biggest question for each team in 2021

The AFC East sent only one team to the playoffs in 2020. And it wasn’t the club that usually makes an appearance in the postseason.

For the first time since 2008, there was a new NFL team atop the AFC East divisional standings at the end of a season. That year, both the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots finished 11-5. But the former edged out Bill Belichick’s team on tiebreakers.

This past year, the Buffalo Bills captured the AFC East for the first time since 1995 and a 13-3 finish included a six-game sweep of their divisional brethren.

To put the latter into perspective, the Indianapolis Colts were a member of the AFC East at the time.

How did the rest of the AFC East fare behind the Bills in the 2020 season?

As for the Patriots, their league-record streak of 11 consecutive postseason appearances came to an end last year via a 7-9 finish. It also marked the first time since Belichick’s first season as head coach in Foxborough that the franchise finished with a losing record.

Of course, it could have been worse. The New York Jets lost their first 13 games in 2020 and finished with the second-worst record in the NFL.

While the Patriots and Jets failed to win more games than they lost, ponder the rapidly improving Miami Dolphins. Even in an expanded postseason field of seven teams per conference, 10 wins was not enough to get Brian Flores club into the postseason party.

It’s time to take a look at arguably the biggest issue still facing all 32 teams. Hence the first installment of an eight-piece division series.

NOTE: Teams are listed in order of finish in 2020.