1.New England Patriots (14-2)
2.New York Jets (10-6)
3.Buffalo Bills (8-8)
4.Miami Dolphins (4-12)
Final Standings
1.New England Patriots (12-4)
2.Miami Dolphins (7-9)
3.Buffalo Bills (6-10)
4.New York Jets (6-10)
Buffalo Bills: The Bills had another
year to forget. At least this year they didn't suffer from the epic
collapse that derailed their 2011 season. The bad news is that they
didn't really have anything to collapse from. Their defense that was
supposed to be dominant after signing defensive ends Mario Williams
and Mark Anderson in free agency and drafting coveted cornerback
Stephon Gilmore in the first round has been wildly inconsistent.
Williams got off to a horrible start, but started to come around in
mid-October and finished the year with 10.5 sacks. Gilmore has been
passable and shown flashes of top-level talent, but he definitely
needs more time to grow. Meanwhile Anderson has been pretty much
useless only playing in five games and registered only 1 sack. Adding
to the inconsistency has been the play of quarterback Ryan
Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick started the year off pretty well, but some
severe duds in middle of the season led to some super conservative
playcalling in order to try to limit his turnovers which has made
their offense pretty stagnant. Fitzpatrick has talent, he just needs
the right coaching to work on his turnover problems. One of the few
bright spots for the Bills this season has been the emergence of
running back C.J Spiller. Spiller has been dominant all season and
made up for the absence of Fred Jackson (who was injury-plagued all
season.). Next season when Jackson returns and can stay healthy , The
Spiller/Jackson tandem could be the most lethal two-back system in
the league. Star wideout Stevie Johnson also managed have another
good year despite Fitzpatrick's inconsistent play. The Bills are
definitely a work in progress. They have some talent to work with,
They just need to play a consistent level and a head coach that can
inspire confidence in his players.
Miami Dolphins:The Dolphins had a far
better season than I expected this year. They were never dominant,
but they quietly had a pretty decent season. Their secondary needs
some improvement, but other than that they had a top 10 run defense
and have a consistently effective pass rush. Cameron Wake had another
Pro Bowl season and proved once again he is the most underrated
defensive player in the NFL. Offensively they didn't make a lot of
noise, but were still able to move the ball. Reggie Bush finished
just shy of a 1,000 yard season and Daniel Thomas has emerged as a
solid third down back that can score in the red zone. Quarterback
Ryan Tannehill didn't put huge numbers in his rookie year, but he
didn't make a whole lot of mistakes and he's been serviceable all
year. He's established a nice chemistry with Brian Hartline and
Anthony Fasano and he has some mobility that allows to him contribute
with his feet from time to time in addition to his arm. Tannehill
should continue to grow and he has the tools to be a solid, albeit
not superstar quarterback in the league for a long time. Miami isn't
flashy and there are only a few great players on the roster, but head
coach Joe Phillbin has this team headed in the right direction.
New England Patriots: Not Surprising:
The Patriots won the division easily and are once again in the hunt
for a title. Surprising: The Patriots have more of an identity crisis
than ever before. The Patriots certainly were dominant at times
(their beatdowns against the Bills and Jets on the road and most
impressively, their blowout victory against the AFC-leading Texans on
Monday Night Football.) At other times, you didn't know if you were
watching a team coached by Bill Belicheck with Tom Brady under center
(their blunder-filled loss to the Cardinals in Week 2 and pathetic
narrow victory over the Jaguars last week.) Even with the
uncharacteristic poor play and coaching at times, The Patriots still
had a great season. Their offense was overwhelmingly dominant as
always. Rob Gronkowski was an unstoppable force before suffering a
broken forearm against the Colts that sidelined for the rest of the
regular season, Wes Welker started off a bit slow, but ended up
anchoring the receiving corps as usual, and Aaron Hernandez has
stepped up big time in Gronkowski's absence after return from an
injury himself. Keep in mind that all this was happening while Tom
Brady is having an underwhelming year (from Tom Brady's standpoint
that is.) The surprise this year for the Patriots is the emergence of
Stevan Ridley as a legitimate running back. The Patriots haven't been
able to run the ball like this since Corey Dillon retired. He makes
the Patriots more dangerous now that they can actually run the ball
for the first time in years. The biggest improvement on this team
though is clearly the defense. Their run defense has played pretty
well all year and a lot of players have made a big impact. Rookie
defensive end Chandler Jones has given them their first elite
pass-rusher since Richard Seymour was traded to Oakland after the
2008 season. Making just as big of impact has been the position
changes of Rob Ninkovich and Devin McCourty. Moving Ninkovich from
outside linebacker to defensive end was a brilliant decision.
Ninkovich explodes off the edge and has been far more effective as
well become a big playmaker since moving to end. McCourty has
actually found a bit of a groove since being moved from cornerback
(where he was arguably the worst in the league) to safety. His speed
is more important at safety than his extremely poor coverage skills
which has payed dividends for his production and value to the team.
Really the only downside to the Patriots this year is their secondary
while improved a bit thanks to their mid-season trade for veteran
cornerback Aqib Talib and the aformentioned McCourty move to safety
can still be pretty easily beaten and the lack of involvement free
agent pick-up wide receiver Brandon Lloyd has had in in the offense.
With Tom Brady at quarterback you will always be contending for a
championship and 2012 was no exception for the New England Patriots.
New York Jets: I don't know why I had
so much confidence in this team. They had gotten over their internal
problems that derailed their 2011 seasons, they were healthy, and Rex
Ryan's confidence and poise coaching this team had me optimistic
about their 2012 season. I was horribly wrong. Outside of dominant
wins against the Bills in the season opener and the playoff-bound
Colts in Week 6, The Jets were for the most part sloppy as all hell
for the rest of the season. Pretty much everything that could go
wrong, did go wrong. First off, They lost two of their best players,
Santonio Holmes and Darrel Revis within the first five weeks of the
season to year-ending injuries. Secondly, they completely failed to
incorporate Tim Tebow into the offense. Tebow is clearly not a great
quarterback, but he is an incredible athlete and could have been very
dangerous in the wildcat if he had been properly utilized. Most
importantly though, Mark Sanchez played absolutely awful. I was
optimistic that Mark Sanchez would get back into his 2009/2010 form
when then the Jets went to back-to-back AFC Championship Games, but
that didn't even come close to happening. Sanchez did have the
unfortunate task of dealing with a group of inexperienced and not
particularly dynamic receivers once Santonio Holmes went down in Week
4, but that's still no excuse for how poorly he played. The Jets
season was pretty much salvaged by their defense. They still had one
of the best passing defenses in the league even without Darrel Revis,
which I found to be very impressive. Antonio Cromartie is a shutdown
corner and his play has been elevated all year to make for Revis's
absence. Laron Landry has also proven to be a worthy pickup making
the Jets secondary even better. Amidst their otherwise terrible
offensive play, running back Shonn Greene has managed to have a
pretty good season getting high volume due to their quarterback woes.
Unfortunately for the Jets, the word is that Greene is going to leave
in free agency leaving them with the decent, but still unproven Bilal
Powell as their starting running back. The Jets are going to have to
have a busy off-season if they want compete in the AFC again.
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