AFC East Draft Needs: Team-By-Team Analysis

Last year, the Dolphins turned had a huge turn around from 1-15 to AFC East champions, losing in their wild card game to the Ravens.

The question, now, is can the Dolphins repeat and hold off the rest of a division that has gotten better?

The draft is a key spot to help fill any holes in a team's roster while trying to improve in certain areas.

We will examine what each team in the East needs to improve through the draft.

Miami Dolphins

The defense needs to start to get younger and the draft is a great spot to achieve this.

At corner the Dolphins have signed Eric Green, but the other corner Will Allen is in his 30s and with no real depth behind these two the Dolphins will need to get a game changing corner in the draft.

The linebacker corps is a good unit, but I do believe that the Dolphins should start to look for a replacement for Joey Porter, as he is getting older and it is never to early to find a future player to mold.

The Dolphins also need to get some depth at outside linebacker or someone to upgrade that position.

Porter was really the only linebacker who got to the quarterback on any constant basis.

On the offensive side the Dolphins need a receiver that will draw the double coverage and will be able to stretch the field.

Ted Ginn Jr. came on really strong towards the end of the season last year, but if Miami wants to contend with the other receiving threats in the division, they need to get a big time receiver.

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots finished the year, 11-5 and still missed the playoffs, which is incredible.

They have done a ton in the off-season and don't have many holes to fill; it's more building depth for this team.

As I said last year, the defense has to get younger to compete with the strong offenses in the league.

The Patriots should look for an outside linebacker, because I really don't think that Thomas has proven himself yet for the Pats.

At the middle backer position, Tedy Bruschi is really not an every-down player anymore and age has slowed his play down.

The Pats should look at getting depth behind Tedy, either molding a future middle backer for down the line or getting a good coverage backer for third and longs.

At the safety position, I don't know how much Rodney Harrison has left in the tank.

Further, I'm not sure if Meriweather is comfortable out of the box, so he is not the answer for Harrison.

The Pats should, again, look for a safety to mold that could be ready if Harrison goes down to injury again.

On offense there isn't much the Pats have to do either other than to get younger at the receiver position. Randy Moss is in his 30's and so is Joey Galloway.

The Pats should get a young receiver who would benefit from playing behind Moss for a year or two.

Buffalo Bills

The Bills went out and grabbed Terrell Owens to help give their offense a spark, but they still do have other holes they need to address.

On the defensive side, they got no pressure last year on the quarterback.

The Bills need to grab a stud pass rusher who will both take the pressure off of the secondary and take some of the double teams away from Schobel.

The other position that is in need on defense is the outside linebacker spot. I just don't think that Ellison is strong enough for the Bills at this position.

The Bills need to draft outside backers first in this draft to shore up the middle of this defense. If they don't upgrade, the outside backers will hurt the Bills big time, especially in this division.

Now, to the offense, which needs big time help.

Starting on the offensive line, the Bills need to take a center, and a guard to help get depth for that line. If one of the linemen goes down with injury, currently the Bills have no one else to step up.

At wide receiver, the Bills brought in Owens but he is on the down side of his career and the only other threat is Evans.

Teams will be able to adjust coverage’s to handle Evans, and double Owens unless the Bills get a speedy number three that will make the defenses play honest—plus with Owens' age, the Bills need to draft a long-term solution at receiver.

At running back, Lynch is having problems with law enforcement. His potential suspension would leave the Bills with a running back issue. They need to use their first pick to get a running back to shore up their running game as a number two back if Lynch is not suspended, and to start if he is.

New York Jets

The NY Jets have had a very active off-season, all but turning into the NY Ravens.

With Rex Ryan fixing the defense there is not a lot to do on that side but there are some things that could be done.

Ryan loves the 3-4 defenses and is going to use it in New York, so the Jets need to have a big time player who can rush off the edge.

Ellis is getting older and is not the long-term solution here; the Jets need to address this or Ryan's defense will just not work long term. The only other spot on the defensive side is the line.

Jenkins is still a good player, but is getting up in years and really didn't do fantastic last year. The Jets should look for a nose tackle to start to groom for the future and to spell Jenkins.

Moving to the other side of the ball now there are a bunch of issues, first being the receiver position as the Jets let go of Coles in the off season. They need to bring in a speedy, big receiver that will not allow defenses to double Cotchery.

Following in that mindset, the Jets need to also draft a tight end, as I do not believe that their tight ends played well in blocking situations last year.

On the line the Jets have no depth to a line that was injured a lot last year. There is only one spare tackle and one guard, so the Jets need to use some draft picks on the line.

The last position that the Jets need to sure up is the quarterback. Brett Favre was not the answer last year, and he definitely cost the Jets down the stretch.

The question is whether Ryan thinks that Clemons or Ratliff are the answer for this team.

Personally, I don't think they are. If Cutler does not end up with the Jets i fully expect them to use pick 17 on a quarterback and start him, as they did rather well with a rookie in Baltimore last year.