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HANDICAPPING AFC EAST WIN TOTALS

Tuesday, 19 August, 2014

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Each day this week I’ll give a breakdown of win totals and where I believe the right side is on the number. Numbers are moving continually and will grow even more before the season begins. This is the fun part of getting into the futures market. Lets just hope no serious injuries occur for those tickets on the over.

Vegas Has it Right On
New England- 10.5
I’ve already written a piece on the AFC East trending upward for 2014. That typically means a downfall for the team that runs the division yearly. With New England their consistency marks an unfathomable reason to suddenly write them off. They’ve improved defensively and have the same nucleus offensively. If it’s not broke don’t fix it. This was one of the easiest totals set by Vegas and it’s spot on.

Beats the Number
New York Jets 7
Initially when looking at the number of seven wins, you’d automatically have a thought of under. On second thought though this team was somewhat impressive last year with a scaled back offense and defense back on the rise. They had some strong wins against the Saints and a few other teams. Normally I’d downgrade a team with a quarterback controversy set to embroil the season. In this case I consider it an upgrade. Geno Smith can’t possibly play worse and Mike Vick is a quarterback you don’t want playing a full 16 games. At some point he’ll probably see the field and a shortened season could be to the Jets benefit. He has been in this role before and understands his situation in New York.

Miami Dolphins 8
Can Ryan Tannehill show true year three quarterback progression? I believe so. He was the main culprit to the demise of many winnable games for the Dolphins a year ago. His confidence began to wane after the Dolphins week four loss on Monday Night football to the Saints. They were ran out of the building with Tannehill having blunder after blunder. After that game the Dolphins play calling was never the same. It was scaled back and hindered the team. This year the play calling will bode to Tannehill’s strengths and we should see a turn around. Don’t be surprised if they get close to a playoff berth or end up with one.

Falls Short
Buffalo 6.5
Being a Syracuse fan I had my questions with the selection of Doug Marrone as head coach. Usually a college coach making the transition to the NFL had a serious strong campaign in college. Marrone did not. Syracuse did develop into a bowl eligible team but getting to a bowl game is not a great achievement anymore. Buffalo seems to have the pieces to string together wins but this does not seem to be the year to do so. The reach in drafting EJ Manuel that stirred controversy will start to rear its head this season.