Jets Hope To Be In The Mix In AFC Beast

The New York Jets believe they improved their team enough to make the playoffs. That tends to mean that they had a successful offseason between free agency and the NFL Draft.

A total of twelve teams will get a shot to play 17 meaningful games next year and the Jets expect to be one of them.

Great, wonderful.

The only problem with that is the fact that the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, and Miami Dolphins are going to do everything in their power to make sure that the Jets are one of the 20 teams that get to play only 16 games.

The AFC East will never be mistaken for the minefield that is the NFC East, but you better believe that they are all coming into the season with the same hopes as the Jets.

You could say that there is no clear-cut favorite in the division, but that's why things are so difficult. No Jets fans can tell you that there is a definite win within the division.

Plus this is the NFL, these guys have too much pride and won't lay down for anyone.

The Patriots are coming off of an 11-5 season without that guy named Tom Brady. Now that he's back, the Patriots will once again have the Super Bowl on their mind. It's as simple as that.

You better believe the other teams within the division have taken notice of some of the personnel they brought into help Brady.

The addition of running back Fred Taylor will have Patriots fans remembering Corey Dillon from their 2004 Super Bowl run. They also added receivers Greg Lewis and Joey Galloway. Tight end Alex Smith will give Brady another set of hands in the red zone.

Oh, and they still have Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and are coached by Bill Belichick. You can't discount Belichick and his coaching style. In terms of his actual "style," well we'll save that for another day.

The "other" team in New York just might be the best team in New York at the moment. The Buffalo Bills were flying well under the radar until a couple words scrolled across your TV, "Wide receiver Terrell Owens has signed with Buffalo Bills."

They faded down the stretch, but lacked the big play. The arrival of Owens gives the Bills quite possibly the best one-two wide receiver combination east of Arizona.

People might not know about Lee Evans, but they should and things got a whole lot easier for him with the arrival of No. 81.

The Dolphins were a great story last year and for some reason, you should never count out a team associated with Bill Parcells. Their schedule is simply brutal and they might not repeat last year's 11-5 record, but quarterback Chad Pennington still will want to add to the Jets number in the loss-column.

The Jets got better and that's all well and good, but so did the teams within their division. Each game is going to take a toll on the players and the Jets will know right away where they stand.

Their first four games are at Houston, home against New England, home against Tennessee, and at New Orleans. With that start they could very well be looking at an 0-4 start when they fly to Miami in October. At that point what they do within their division won't matter.

Whomever is starting, between quarterbacks Kellen Clemens or Mark Sanchez, will have to learn pretty quick if they expect to have anything left to play for when they fly across the country to Oakland in Week 7.