Buffalo Bills
The Bills have built the most complete roster in the NFL over the last several seasons and they put the finishing touches on this offseason. It’s now or never for the Bills to make a run to the Super Bowl and they are rightfully one of the favorites to do so. It starts with potential MVP candidate QB Josh Allen. He has progressed every year of his career and he did everything he could do to beat Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs last season and then his defense and a coin took his victory away. He’s ready, and so is this offense. WR Stefon Diggs is one of the best in the NFL He and Allen are a dynamic pair. Gabriel Davis looks poised to step up as the second option and Isaiah McKenzie was quite good when he stepped into the slot role last year. TE Dawson Knox was a TD machine and he’s become a reliable target Allen really trusts. The team also signed OJ Howard at TE and while he’s always been more potential than production, they hope he changes that in Buffalo.
The running game was basically Allen or bust until the last five weeks of the season when Devin Singletary finally decided to show up. The Bills will still be a pass heavy offense but they need to balance it out a little bit. Singletary is a solid back and they are hoping Zack Moss can rediscover whatever it was he lost last year when he was ineffective. They also drafted RB James Cook, probably the best pass catching RB in the draft. He could have a huge part in this offense with his skillset. The line returns three starters, LT Dion Dawkins, RT Spencer Brown, and center Mitch Morse. They were clearly unhappy with the guard play as they signed veterans Ryan Bates and Roger Saffold, both should start.
The defense collapsed last year in the last 14 seconds of the playoff game and overtime against Patrick Mahomes. It’s hard to completely blame them, it was Patrick Mahomes after all, however, if they get a stop this team would have been playing in the Super Bowl. Under head coach Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier they play multiple fronts and often in nickel so they need versatility. Enter Super Bowl Champion Von Miller. Miller has been an elite pass rusher his entire career and even though he’s 33 he proved last year when he joined the Rams mid-season, he’s still got something left. He brings valuable experience to a pass rushing group that is quite young. Greg Rousseau, AJ Epenesa, and Boogie Basham are all young DEs. The DTs are Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones. Oliver is the smaller, quicker guy while Jones brings serious size.
The team mostly deploys two LBs and uses five defensive backs but with Miller around he can slide back and they can use others up front if necessary. MLB Tremaine Edmunds is big, fast, and athletic. He does a little bit of everything and he’s a leader on defense. Matt Milano is the other do-everything LB. He and Edmunds are a dynamic duo.
The secondary will welcome back CB Tre’Davious White from injury, he’s one of the better CBs in the league and fits what Buffalo does perfectly. He’s been waiting years for an above average partner and the team spent a first-round pick on Florida CB Kaiir Elam, he is an excellent match. Dane Jackson is listed as the starter early in camp but Elam will win this job eventually. Elam and White are going to be a tough duo to beat. Taron Johnson is an underrated nickel corner and he gives them three excellent cornerbacks. The safeties are Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer. Generally, Poyer is the SS and Hyde is the FS but, in this defense, these two are essentially interchangeable and that’s what makes them so good. Neither gets the credit of some of the top safeties in the league but they work so well together it’s like they are one great player playing two positions.
New England Patriots
The Patriots found there new QB last year in Mac Jones and they are starting to surround him with legitimate playmakers to make him better. The real question is whether they have the coaching staff around to help him after Josh McDaniels left for Las Vegas and took some of the offensive staff with him. Matt Patricia (the former defensive coordinator) and Joe Judge (the former special teams coordinator) are now running the offensive staff, it’s a concerning development. I do like the way they are building their WR corps. The brought in DeVante Parker, he’s a big, physical X receiver. Kendrick Bourne proved to be a good deep threat and Jakobi Meyers is an excellent slot receiver. They are really good complements to each other. They also drafted Tyquan Thornton (even if it was a little too high) and he adds a top-level speed threat, although he’ll miss the first half of the season with a broken clavicle. Nelson Agholor is still around (he’s a possible trade candidate) and they like youngster Tre Nixon. Hunter Henry proved to be a reliable target at TE for Mac Jones but they would really like to get Jonnu Smith going too, he can be a playmaker in this offense.
The running game will be handled by Damien Harris most of the time but he tends to get banged up and that means Rhamondre Stevenson will get plenty of use. It’s not a bad setup unless you have one of them as your fantasy running back. James White was supposed to be the pass catching back but he retired. They drafted Pierre Strong Jr. and signed Ty Montgomery and I think Stevenson might get some of the third-down work.
The offensive line returns four starters but they might not all be back where they were last year. In training camp, the team has been playing Trent Brown at LT and Isaiah Wynn at RT. Wynn needs to stay healthy if he wants to continue his career because he’s become unreliable due to injury. Michael Onwenu will likely move to RG to replace Shaq Mason while center David Andrews returns in the pivot. The one new guy is LG Cole Strange, their first-round pick. He was drafted too high (it was a theme for their draft) but they need him to start at guard. They don’t have a lot of depth with Justin Herron as their swing tackle and James Ferentz backing up on the interior as the only sure things. Yodney Cajuste is making a late play for Wynn’s job, I wouldn’t be against that move.
The defense had plenty of issues last season but most of them weren’t up front. Deatrich Wise Jr., Davon Godchaux, and Lawrence Guy are three very solid players up front. Godchaux got a little extension because he was good. Wise and Guy know what they’re doing and that’s mostly what the team asks given the multiple fronts they run. Guy is getting a little older but the team drafted Christian Barmore last year and he had a good rookie year. He can play multiple spots so he’s great depth.
The LB corps wasn’t great last season. OLB Matt Judon started off the season well but tailed off towards the end when the defense was falling apart. Kyle Van Noy was effective for some of the year but now he’s gone and as great as Dont’a Hightower was in his Patriot’s career he was awful last year after sitting out the 2020 season due to Covid concerns. He’s a free agent who hasn’t signed anywhere and the team has moved on. Chase Winovich was traded meaning they need one of the young guys to step up at OLB and it looks like they are counting on Josh Uche to be that guy. He looked like he had potential as a rookie two years ago and then had a sophomore slump last year. They also have Ronnie Perkins, a rookie last year who didn’t play, and Anfernee Jennings, a versatile member of the LB corps. Any production from either of them would be an improvement over last year. The ILBs were even worse than the OLB last year. Hightower was awful and Ja’Whaun Bentley is simply overmatched, he’s a limited player that Belichick seems to love. They got Mack Wilson in the Winovich trade, he adds some speed and athleticism. Raekwon McMillan and Cameron McGrone both missed last year with injury and my sincere hope is they step up this year. McGrone brings the type of athleticism this team has been missing inside for years.
The secondary took a massive hit with the departure of JC Jackson in free agency. They brought back Malcolm Butler who wasn’t looking great in camp and then went on injured reserve. They signed Terrance Mitchell to pair with Jalen Mills and those two starting at CB is a scary thought. Jonathan Jones is a great slot corner but no one is going to attack the slot if Mitchell and Mills are the outside corners. They are experimenting with Jonathan Jones outside and hopefully that will stick. The team drafted two corners, Marcus Jones and Jack Jones (I know, that’s a lot of Joneses at CB), they are both undersized and I’m not counting on either to make a huge impact. Marcus Jones could play the slot if Jonathan Jones can prove he’s solid outside. I’m not optimistic.
The safety position is in far better shape. Devin McCourty may be 35 this year but he’s still excellent. Kyle Duggar stepped up as a big safety last season and Adrian Phillips is quite good too. They also signed Jabrill Peppers, and while he’s coming off a knee injury, he could be quite good in Belichick’s defense. They also really like Joshuah Bledsoe, who’s having an excellent start to training camp. Maybe they should just play five safeties and no CBs, it’s a whole new defensive approach.
Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins are one of the teams who made major improvements to their offensive personnel in order to find out if the QB they have is the QB they should keep. They also got a new head coach who’s bringing in a new offensive system. Mike McDaniel comes from Kyle Shanahan coaching tree in San Francisco so we have some idea of the type of offense he’ll run. It should be a bit more run heavy but they didn’t go out and trade for WR Tyreek Hill to use him as a decoy. Hill joins Jaylen Waddle and free agent signee Cedric Wilson in a rebuilt WR corps. Add in TE Mike Gesicki and Tua Tagovailoa has no reason to fail at QB. He hasn’t been good his first few years but that may have been due to the offensive coaching staff’s failures. As good of a head coach and defensive mind as Brian Flores was in Miami, he never had a settled offensive staff and that works against a young QB. Hill is a game breaker, while Waddle was excellent as a rookie last year. He already has a good chemistry with Tua. Cedric Wilson is a very solid third WR.
The other thing working against a young QB is an inconsistent running game behind a poor offensive line. You can’t say the Dolphins haven’t been trying to put together a good o-line, they just haven’t been successful at it. Enter LT Terron Armstead, a truly excellent LT if he’s healthy. He allows them to move some other pieces around. Liam Eichenberg can move inside to LG while they try Austin Jackson at RT. They also signed Connor Williams from Dallas and they plan to install him at center, a new position for him. That leaves guys like Solomon Kingsley, Robert Hunt, and Michael Deiter to fight for the RG spot. The team also signed RB Raheem Mostert from San Francisco (McDaniels’ old team) along with Chase Edmonds and Sony Michel to built an almost entirely new RB corps. Myles Gaskin returns but if they wanted Myles Gaskin to be the RB, they wouldn’t have signed three free agents.
The defense was excellent under Brian Flores and his defensive coordinator Josh Boyer so Mike McDaniel did the smart thing and he kept Boyer around. They return most of the defense and the scheme so they should be pretty good. Zach Sieler, Raekwon Davis, and Christian Wilkins make a really solid trio up front. Wilkins is the tone-setter and he probably doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as a playmaker. Emmanuel Ogbah had another good year at OLB and Andrew Van Ginkel is solid on the other side. Rookie Jaelen Phillips was excellent as a pass rushing specialist and he should only get better. They also signed Melvin Ingram III to get some more depth. Jerome Baker is quite good at ILB and Elandon Roberts is fine but he’s not great.
The secondary features two of the most expensive CBs in football, Xavien Howard and Byron Jones. The spendy duo do a great job and they make things easier for the rest of the defense. However, the CB spot isn’t very deep as Nik Needham is their only real depth. At safety, Brandon Jones and Jevon Holland have taken over, they are a young but talented pair. Eric Rowe is the depth; I don’t like Rowe but I guess they still do.
New York Jets
The Jets are one of the other teams trying to surround their QB with talent to give him the best opportunity to succeed. The difference is, they didn’t wait very long, Zack Wilson is only in year two. Wilson has all the physical talent you could want, now he just has to put it all together with this offense. That process hit a snag when he injured his knee in the preseason but he shouldn’t be out too long. Corey Davis is a solid veteran to rely on. Elijah Moore got off to a slow start last year as a rookie but he really came on in the second half of the season. They added Garrett Wilson in the draft to complete the trio and they all fill a role quite well. Davis is the big, outside guy, Moore can dominate in the slot but also flip outside if needed, and Wilson is dynamic on the perimeter and can also dominate in the slot. The team knew they needed to get Wilson a nice security blanket too so they signed TE CJ Uzomah from the Bengals, he’s pretty good.
Speaking of security blankets for young QBs, nothing is better than a good RB, especially one who can catch out of the backfield, enter Breece Hall. He’s the perfect back for the zone running scheme the Jets use and he’s a natural pass catcher who knows how to get yardage once he has the ball. Hall is the immediate starter and makes Michael Carter the backup, a better role for him. The offensive line is where things get interesting. They wanted to flip-flop OT Mekhi Becton and OG Alijah Vera-Tucker from the left side to the right side. Only half of that is happening because Becton was lost to an injury for the season, that sucks for this team. Vera-Tucker moves because the team signed Laken Tomlinson in free agency and they want him at LG. George Fant played LT after Becton got hurt last year and they planned to give him the job until Becton got hurt this year. They signed veteran Duane Brown after Becton’s injury and he’s a LT so Fant will go back to RT. Connor McGovern is the center; they hope he isn’t the weak link.
The Jets defense was pretty rough last year. The secondary was a mess, they had some key injuries, and they just didn’t have enough talent. Up front they lost their big free agent pass rusher Carl Lawson before the season even began. He’s back and that should help a lot. John Franklin-Myers did a solid job but he was mostly working alone. Now they also added Jermaine Johnson in the draft and he’ll really juice the pass rush. Quinnen Williams is underappreciated inside and Sheldon Rankins is solid too.
At LB, CJ Mosley finally played after injuries and Covid knocked him out for almost two seasons. He’s still a tackling machine and they need his leadership. Quincy Williams mans the other usual LB spot and the team just signed Kwon Alexander hoping to add some talent at the position. Lamarcus Joyner technically returns but he only played in one game last year and Ashtyn Davis will compete with him for the SS spot, he really hasn’t distinguished himself so far. The rest of the starting lineup is new. CB Sauce Gardner was added in the draft, while CB DJ Reed comes in as a free agent along with FS Jordan Whitehead. Gardner has #1 traits and Reed is a very talented #2. This pushes Bryce Hall and the other Michael Carter (not the RB) down the depth chart, that’s a good thing. Hall can play but he’s miscast as the top CB on any team.
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