NFL Quarterly Review: AFC East

AFC East

MVP: Tom Brady

Surprise surprise, Brady is tearing up the league again. The Patriots seem to have found a bit of a running game this year, a bonus for Brady which should take a little bit of pressure off of him... as if he needed it.

LVP: Mark Sanchez

I don’t want to join the rest of the sports-media world by dumping on Sanchez, but I have to. He’s been bad. Really bad. Like completing less than half of his passing attempts bad. Like 69.6 quarterback rating bad. Although that said, I still don’t think he’s been “let’s bring in Tebow”-bad. That’s only because I’m a Tebow hater though...

Sanchez has been really bad... really bad

Player to Watch: Stevan Ridley

With Ridley, the Pats seem to have found a quality running back, capable of running up the middle, and turning the corner and bouncing runs outside as well. That should be terrifying to every other team. The Patriots have rolled the last couple years with absolutely no rushing attack to speak of. Now they have a guy running for over 4.5 yards per carry, and who has out-rushed the likes of Ray Rice, Frank Gore, and Adrian Peterson. Now that’s scary.

Division Winner: New England Patriots

From October 29 to December 2, the Patriots schedule looks like this: @ St Louis (in London), Bye, Buffalo, Indianapolis, @ New York Jets, @ Miami. Even though St Louis and Miami aren’t as bad as people thought they were at the beginning of the season, that’s still a stretch of games that dreams are made of for New England. Expect the Pats to continue to roll.

This guy—and this team—are pretty good

Division Dog: New York Jets

I don’t think the Jets are all that bad to be honest. When they’re healthy, that is. The fact that they are going to be missing their best defensive player (Revis) and most explosive offensive player (Santonio Holmes) doesn’t bode well. Bluntly, they just can’t do a thing on offense, and that trend is likely to continue all year... or at least until Tebow Time hits New Jersey.