WILL PATS, JETS BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY IN AFC EAST?
Those who love to do proposition betting are looking with a lot of excitement at the AFC East division, where the New England Patriots and New York Jets will, in the opinion of many, be battling it out for supremacy when all is said and done. The Jets made a surprise run to the conference championship game, while the Patriots were disappointing in the playoffs, losing to Baltimore. Some would suggest that you can’t look past the Miami Dolphins either. In the NFL betting lines, the Patriots are the favorites to win the division, at +130, with the Jets at +140 and the Dolphins at +325. Maybe it’s anybody ballgame.
The Patriots may still be the best team in this division, but observers see some chinks in the armor, which is why, even though this team is the favorite in proposition betting at +130, it isn’t by very much. The Pats have good reason to hear the footsteps from the Jets. For one thing, that offensive line they have may be getting old and brittle, and a breakdown wouldn’t be completely unforeseen. The running back-by-committee thing may not stack up all that well anymore against other teams in this division; wide receiver Randy Moss has expressed some unhappiness with the fact that he hasn’t been offered a contract extension, and nothing there is likely to change; and Wes Welker is coming off knee surgery. Also, the defense has suffered a lot of attrition over the last couple of years, and maybe Bill Belichick hasn’t done enough to replenish it. Yes, I would say that the Pats are one of the more vulnerable favorites out there.
Are the New York Jets (+140 in proposition betting for this division) as good as Rex Ryan thinks they are? He does a good job of pounding home the idea that his team is better than anybody when they play their best, but not everyone is so convinced. Shonn Greene has to be ready to handle more of the load as a #1 running back, and somehow a replacement for guard Alan Faneca had better materialize. Darrelle Rivas has finally signed, but will he be a stopper right from the start? Antonio Cromartie and Jason Taylor seem like useful additions to the defense. Are they? Perhaps most importantly, is Mark Sanchez truly ready to take the next step? The Jets, who will be without Santonio Holmes for the first four games (suspension), may need more from his arm this season. For the Jets’ sake, his attitude had better not go the way of another USC “alum,” Matt Leinart.
The Miami Dolphins (+325 in proposition betting in the AFC East) are a curious case because they come off a division title and had a very rough year, and part of that may have been because Chad Pennington suffered a season-ending injury. However, there were other problems as well; Miami was playing a tougher schedule than the year before, and was very stingy with the ball, hardly ever turning it over. They’ve still got the “Wildcat,” and they execute it better than anybody else; that’s a sign of good coaching. The sudden resignation/self-demotion of Bill Parcells was a little surprising to Dolphin followers, but what will have a bigger effect on this season is that the management Parcells has nurtured is committed to Chad Henne as the quarterback, and this team may sink or swim with him.
I’ve been pretty skeptical about the decision the Buffalo Bills (+2500 in AFC East proposition betting) made when choosing Chan Gailey as head coach, when other, “fresher” candidates may have been preferable. Gailey is an offensive mind, though, and his team may look more alive on that side of the ball than in the last couple of years. They need more help on the outside after the departure of Terrell Owens and the release of James Hardy, and Trent Edwards is in the “put up or shut up” phase of his career. The running game will be deep when all hands are on deck, and rookie CJ Spiller is going to make some very exciting plays. There’s too much in this division to give Buffalo a realistic chance, and honestly, I’m thinking that New England, at +130 in proposition betting here, may be the one that brings the return on investment.
Formatted for CROWN by Marko Puljić
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