New England Patriots Face No Threat In AFC East, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets Are Long Shots In 2019

The New England Patriots entered the 2019 NFL season as the runway favorites to win the AFC East. The idea that the defending Super Bowl champions have no real competition in their own division was only reinforced in Week 1.

New England was utterly dominant in the season opener, blowing out the Pittsburgh Steelers 33-3 Sunday night. The game was over early in the second half. The Patriots did all of this without Antonio Brown, who just signed with the team this past weekend.

No one had a worse Week 1 than the Miami Dolphins. They were beaten 59-10 at home by the Baltimore Ravens. Miami was projected to be the NFL’s worst team, though the Dolphins might fail to even reach their already low expectations as they tank for the No.1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The Buffalo Bills pulled out a road win against the New York Jets to start the season 1-0. Neither team was particularly impressive. Buffalo committed four turnovers in the victory, while New York was unable to hold onto a 16-3 fourth-quarter lead.

Of course, Tom Brady remains the best quarterback in the division by a wide, wide margin. The six-time Super Bowl winner threw for 341 yards, three touchdowns and a 124.9 passer rating in his 2019 debut. Sam Darnold, Josh Allen and Ryan Fitzpatrick all had mediocre games, none of them posting a passer rating higher than 84.9.

That’s why the Patriots are 1/10 betting favorites, at worse, to win the AFC East at various sportsbooks. New England’s division odds are -1000 at FanDuel Sportsbook. The Patriots are up to -1430 favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook.

Buffalo is considered to be New England’s biggest competition after beating New York, but the Bills only have +900 division odds at the aforementioned New Jersey sportsbooks. The Jets come in at +1100.

Miami isn’t even in the conversation with +8000 odds to win the division.

The Patriots have won the division in 10 straight years, only failing to do so in 2008 when Brady was limited to one game because of a torn ACL. Even if Brady were to suffer a season-ending injury in Week 2, New England would probably still be favored to win the division.

New England is a massive 16.5-point road favorite against the Dolphins Sunday, according to OddsShark.