Joe & Daphne's Preview: The AFC East

Daphne: "Release me vile human!"

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) and Daphne Parello (@DaphnePup)

Welcome to our first NFL preview of the summer! My pup and I are happy to have you. Over the next several weeks we will be taking a look at every division in the league, along with making playoff and award predictions.

We begin today with the AFC East, a division owned by the New England Patriots, or, more specifically, quarterback Tom Brady, who has won the division in all but one of his healthy seasons since taking over as the Patriots' starter in mid-2001. That's 12 division titles in Brady's 13 seasons, if you're curious, with the Patriots winning the division 12 times overall in that 14 year span.

In that time, only one other quarterback has won the AFC East: The immortal Chad Pennington, who went 7-2 as a starter for the 2002 Jets, and led the Dolphins to a division crown during Brady's injury lost season of 2008.

Unfortunately, Chad Pennington ain't walking through that door for anybody in the division.

Still, the AFC East could be better and deeper than it has been in years, thanks to some suddenly salty defenses. But, will the division's traditional also-rans get enough out of their quarterbacks to capitalize on their stellar defensive fronts? Daphne and I examine.

Long And Suite Preview: The AFC

Can Peyton Manning lead the Broncos back atop the AFC?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

We're just gonna blow through these quickly - just post our picks for how each division will finish, what each team's record will be, and how the playoff seedings stack up. The heavy analysis as to how and why those things will come about will be in tomorrow's full-season preview. This is just quick and dirty picks. First will be each division's order of finish. The second section will have each team's record (and a pick for each team's respective over/under). The third section will be our top six teams.

Long And Suite Preview: The AFC East

Tom Brady is still under center for the Patriots, but it will be New England's defense that will need to carry them if they want to make it back to the Super Bowl.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

The AFC East will (in overwhelming likelihood) not be hotly contested. The division title, for years, has been the reward the New England Patriots receive simply for showing up with a healthy quarterback. The Patriots have won 12 or more games in eight of the last eleven seasons. No other team in the division has even done it once. They've won the division in 11 of the last 13. The two years they didn't they came damn close - in 2008, they went 11-5 but lost the division to the also 11-5 Dolphins, despite the Patriots posting a far superior scoring margin. In 2002, there was a three-way tie at 9-7 atop the division, but the Patriots lost out to the Jets on tiebreakers despite, again, a superior scoring margin.

Nobody really expects anyone to challenge the Patriots, which is why they have the second-steepest odds to win their division - Vegas sees only Denver as a bigger lock to win their division. But after the Patriots, the division is very much in flux. And with the conference so up in the air outside of New England and Denver, whoever grabs second in the AFC East could very well be a dangerous Wild Card team.

Long and Suite Preview: The AFC East

Belichick and Brady have ruled the AFC East for a dozen years, but how much longer can the Pats dominate the division?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

It's been a dozen years of dominance for New England in the AFC East. The Pats have won 10 of the 12 division titles since Tom Brady stepped in for the injured Drew Bledsoe back in 2001, not to mention appeared in five Super Bowls, winning three.

So basically, this has been the Brady/Belichick division for a generation now.

Will that change this season, with new offensive talent assembled in South Florida and a new era underway in Buffalo? Probably not, but for the first time in a while, the Patriots don't look unstoppable on offense, so perhaps this is the beginning of the end for New England's dominant run.