2009 NFL Season Preview: AFC East

Continuing today, The American Sports Blog will preview the 2009 NFL season. Going division-by-division, we'll look at each team and predict a winner for each division. At the conclusion, we'll predict the Super Bowl matchup and champion. Today, we look at the AFC East: Over the past decade, the New England Patriots have for the most part owned the AFC East. That all changed last season, when Tom Brady went down with a torn ACL in the first game of the season. The Miami Dolphins took advantage of Brady's absence and went on to win the division. It was a competitive race until the very end, with the New York Jets also in the mix heading into the final week of the regular season. With Brady back and healthy, the division should be competitive again. Miami Dolphins (11-5): Bill Parcells and the Dolphins should thank the New York Jets for what happened last season. Had the Jets not traded for Brett Favre and dumped Chad Pennington, the Dolphins never would have been able to bring Pennington to Miami. Though Pennington arrived in Miami less than two weeks before the season, he was a quick study and led the Dolphins to the playoffs. Their turnaround tied for the biggest in NFL history, and now the challenge will be to make the playoffs with every team knowing full well how good they are. For the Dolphins, the offense must take a big step forward in order to improve upon last season's record. Miami shocked the league last year when they debuted the "wildcat" offense against the Patriots in Week 3 of the season, but that's not an offensive scheme. The wildcat is a nice gimmick, and something that won't win the Dolphins football games all season long. Part of the reason for the inception of the wildcat could have been that since Pennington didn't fully know the offense, the team needed something to get the offense rolling. With Pennington now having an entire offseason to learn everything about the offense, the Dolphins should be able to expand the playbook. The key will be trying to keep Pennington healthy -- he's played in all 16 games just twice in his career. Should Pennington get hurt, the Dolphins will have to turn to Chad Henne, who may not be ready to step into a starting role. The offensive production was certainly great and unexpected last season, but it was the defense that led the Dolphins to the playoffs. Linebacker Joey Porter was the anchor of the defense, sacking the quarterback 17.5 times. Porter can't be expected to do it all alone, though. The next-best sack total on the team last season was Matt Roth, who had five. Better numbers will need to be put up if the Dolphins defense is going to improve. Jason Taylor was brought back to Miami to be a situational pass-rusher, but his role is now likely to expand as Roth has been placed on the reserve/non-football injury list. Also imperative for the Dolphins on defense will be to replace members of the secondary that have been lost. Andre' Goodman and Renaldo Hill are now in Denver, and those two led the team in interceptions. The Dolphins selected cornerbacks Vontae Davis and Sean Smith in the first and third rounds, respectively, and both will be counted on to produce right away. Miami better be prepared for what is going to take place in 2009. No longer will they catch opponents by surprise -- every team will be ready to face them. The Dolphins surely implemented new packages for Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams in the wildcat, but defenses will be ready for it. Moreover, the Dolphins have one of the toughest schedules in the league this season, so it's not going to be easy. Because of the schedule and lack of an explosive offense, it's hard to imagine the Dolphins making a return trip to the postseason in 2009. New England Patriots (11-5): Is there a better coach in the league than Bill Belichick? Tom Brady went down in the first quarter of the first game of the regular season, and everyone assumed the Patriots would have no chance to compete. Belichick had a different plan, however, and inserted Matt Cassel into the lineup. Not only had Cassel never started a game in the NFL, he hadn't started a game since high school. The Patriots went on to win 11 games and just miss the playoffs. Now that Brady is back, the rest of the league has to be worried about the Pats. Even without Brady, the Patriots offense was still one of the best in football last season. Cassel put up excellent numbers and was helped by the receiving tandem of Randy Moss and Wes Welker. Brady sure enjoyed having those two in 2007, when he threw for a league-record 50 touchdowns. Since Brady is coming off a torn ACL and MCL, you can't expect him to reach that number again -- but he's going to come close. When Brady teamed up with Moss and Welker for that record season in '07, Moss and Welker had no experience in the offense; they were new additions who only had worked with Brady during the offseason. Now, Moss and Welker have had two years in the system, and should know it like the back of their hand. Brady has great chemistry with both and that should return this season. The Pats received a scare against the Redskins in Week 3 of this preseason, when defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth drove Brady to the ground, hurting his shoulder. Though all of the reports out of Foxborough are that Brady is fully healthy, there still has to be some concern level of concern regarding his shoulder. While the offense stayed mostly the same this offseason, the defense went through a number of changes. For the most part, the Patriots have gone young. With all the additions and subtractions, cornerback Shawn Spring is the oldest member of the defense at 34. The second-oldest is Adalius Thomas, who is 32. Safety Rodney Harrison retired at the end of the season, and linebacker Tedy Bruschi retired just last week. The Patriots then pulled off a stunner a few days ago by trading away Richard Seymour to the Raiders for a first round pick in 2011. Clearly, the goal in New England is to get much better defensively. That concept can work both ways, and the biggest issue in New England is a questionable and somewhat inexperienced secondary. The starting corners are expected to be Leigh Bodden, 27, and Darius Bulter, 23. Butler is just a rookie, while Bodden has had some experience as a starter. The defense will be looked at closely throughout the season, because the Patriots need this unit to play well in order to go deep into January. In 2009, nothing short a Super Bowl victory will be accepted by the Patriots. The Patriots are the preseason favorites in nearly everyone's book, but if there's any team that can handle those expectations, it's the Patriots. Belichick is a great coach who knows exactly what to say to his team, and Brady also knows how to push the right button with his teammates. For multiple reasons, this team has to be expected to reach the Super Bowl. New York Jets (9-7): Brett Favre who? Most Jets fans would like to forget what transpired last season, when the Jets collapsed in the final five games of the regular season to miss the playoffs. Since then, many changes have been made. Favre is now in Miami, and Eric Mangini is now the head coach in Cleveland. Rex Ryan was hired to bring his fiery spirit and enthusiasm to the Big Apple, and expectations are high for a team that is filled with veterans. Where Ryan will really help the Jets is on defense. Ryan comes over from the Baltimore Ravens, where he was the defensive coordinator for four seasons. His defenses in Baltimore were consistently some of the best in the NFL, and he'll try and bring his scheme and passion to the Jets. He also brought over linebacker Bart Scott and safety Jim Leonhard, who he was able to sign in free agency. Those two will help bring confidence and swag to an already solid defense. With the Jets defense, everything starts with defense tackle Kris Jenkins. Jenkins was an unstoppable force last season, and he undoubtedly will get even better under Ryan. The secondary is also a strength for the Jets, with Darrelle Revis and Dwight Lowery at cornerback; Lito Sheppard was also added in a traded with the Philadelphia Eagles. Ryan will be tested by trying to improve his linebacker corps, which will not have Calvin Pace for the first four games of the regular season due to a Tasked with getting the Jets to the playoffs will be rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez. The Jets traded up in the draft in order to get Sanchez, who was the second quarterback selected behind Matthew Stafford in Detroit. From the beginning, Sanchez has embraced the high expectations and criticism that come with playing in New York, which is a good sign. He battled throughout the offseason with Kellen Clemens for the starting job, and Sanchez came away with the victory. There were times when Sanchez looked like a rookie, but there were also times when he displayed remarkable poise. His performance against the Baltimore Ravens in which he threw an interception and rebounded to later throw a touchdown pass ultimately won him the job. Working to the advantage of Sanchez will be the fact that Jets have an excellent running game. Thomas Jones led the AFC in rushing last year, and Leon Washington's role in the offense should expand this season. Moreover, the team drafted Shonn Greene to help the running game as well. The problem for the Jets will be the receiving corps, which is mediocre at best. With the exception of Jerricho Cotchery and Brad Smith, no receiver on the Jets has had more than 50 career receptions.Because of the uncertainty at the wide receiver position, the Jets have been linked in the past week to troubled Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall. Reports now indicate that the Jets are no longer interested, however. Sanchez will need someone to throw to, and while Cotchery and tight end Dustin Keller are solid options, the lack of a big-play receiver is somewhat troubling. With Sanchez, Ryan will try to duplicate the formula used by the Ravens last season with rookie quarterback Joe Flacco. That entailed a solid running game and relying on the defense to carry the team. In New York, Ryan will have the ability to use that same formula. This team probably isn't a playoff team just yet, but Sanchez is capable of leading the Jets there eventually. Buffalo Bills (7-9): What a terrible season it was in Buffalo last season. The season started out beautifully, as Trent Edwards was putting together an extremely solid year. Everything took a turn for the worse in Week 5 against the Cardinals, when Edwards suffered a concussion. After that injury, Edwards never seemed the same. Buffalo started the season with a 5-1 record and looked headed for the playoffs, but they proceeded to win just two of their final 10 games. It's been an offseason of change in Buffalo -- one that owner Ralph Wilson hopes will get the Bills to the postseason. At 90 years old, Wilson is becoming extremely impatient; he wants to see his team make the playoffs for the first time this decade. That is why there is an increased sense of pressure surrounding head coach Dick Jauron, who needs to put together a playoffs season in order to retain his job. To increase their chances of reaching the playoffs this year, the Bills brought in receiver Terrell Owens to give Edwards a big target to throw to. The problem, though, is that Owens is a divisive force in locker rooms and surely won't help the development of Edwards. Despite that, Wilson signed Owens to a one-year, $6.5 million contract. As if the Owens signing wasn't puzzling enough, Wilson admitted that the main reason that the Bills signed Owens was to bring more attention to the franchise. Talk about strange. Even more strange, however, was the Bills decision to fire offensive coordinator Turk Schonert less than two weeks before the start of the regular season. The Bills offense was awful during the preseason, but Schonert seemed to be on his way to installing a no-huddle offense that could eventually become affective in Buffalo. Not once in Jauron's tenure in Buffalo has the Bills offense finished in the top-20 of the league, and that probably won't change this year. It's playoffs or bust for Jauron and the Bills this season. At this point however, the Bills playoff chances appear to be slim. Division winner: New England. The Patriots are absolutely loaded offensively. Look out for rookie wide receiver Julian Edelman, who is a faster version of Welker. Frankly, it would be shocking if the Pats didn't win this division.