How Miami Dolphins' Offense, Defense Compare to Rest of AFC East

The most important matchups for any NFL team every season are those against their divisional foes. 

The Miami Dolphins compete in a division home to the defending Super Bowl champions, while another division rival of the Dolphins hope they are a team on the rise after a 9-7 season, and their last division rival underwent a massive facelift. 

How do the Dolphins compare to the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots and New York Jets? Let's take a look at both sides of the ball. 

Offense

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

The Miami Dolphins have the overall second-best offense in the AFC East. 

Miami's quarterback Ryan Tannehill is the second-best AFC East quarterback, and this is one of those opinions that border more on fact. 

Such is the case when the quarterback in front of him at No. 1 is Tom Brady. However, Brady possibly won't be around for the first four games of the season due to his involvement in Deflategate. Though his appeal to the suspension was heard by the league on Tuesday, per NFL.com.

Helping this fact are Tannehill's career numbers; he's completed 61.9 percent of his passes for 11,252 yards, 63 touchdowns, 42 interceptions and a quarterback rating of 84.0. 

Those numbers are all improving from year-to-year as well. 

Also helping Tannehill's case for being second is the third-best quarterback, New York's Geno Smith. 

Despite Smith's maddening perfect day in the last game of the season against the Dolphins in 2014, Smith has been far from a perfect quarterback. As for his career he has completed 57.5 percent of his passes for 5,571 yards, 25 touchdowns and 34 interceptions for a quarterback rating of 71.5. 

Seth Wenig/Associated Press/Associated Press

That's a better situation than the one in Buffalo, if only because the job is "Geno's to lose," according to Jets head coach Todd Bowles. 

In Buffalo, this is a legitimate question, per Bleacher Report's Cian Fahey: "Can Tyrod Taylor Really beat out Matt Cassel for Bills' starting QB spot?"

E.J. Manuel is also a part of that battle, and there's really nothing more to say about the Bills' quarterback situation. 

So, at quarterback, Miami is second in the division, which is also where they stand at running back (behind the Bills' backfield weapons that include LeSean McCoy and Fred Jackson). 

While at running back they may be second in the division, due to having more balance on offense they might be more effective. Rookie Jay Ajayi makes the perfect complement to Lamar Miller, a running back who averaged 5.1 yards per carry last year. 

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

At wide receiver, I'd rank the Dolphins as the best unit in the division, despite the Jets having more star-power. Miami's receiver unit might be a tad green, but they have the greatest upside of any in the division. Three of their top four receivers are under the age of 23, and Greg Jennings is the perfect veteran leader to help guide the crew. 

Finally at offensive line, Miami right now has the worst in the AFC East. There are issues at guard, as evidenced by the fact that Dallas Thomas is still a candidate to start. The success of the line is almost fully dependent on how healthy Branden Albert will be when he comes back. 

Overall Miami's offense is a good one but not without its problems. Looking at each unit on offense, I'd rank the Dolphins at second in the division, due mainly to the fact that they have the second-best quarterback in the division and he'll throw it to the division's best receiving unit. 

Alan Diaz/Associated Press

Defense

Ranking Miami's defense in comparison to the rest of the division is a lot tougher. 

Do they have the best defensive line in football? They might not even have the best defensive line in the division. 

They might not have the second-best defensive line in the division, either. 

This is despite a front four that will include Cameron Wake and Olivier Vernon on the edges with Ndamukong Suh and Earl Mitchell up the middle. 

This is despite the fact that they have C.J. Mosley, rookie Jordan Philips, Derrick Shelby, A.J. Francis and Terrence Fede behind those guys on the depth chart, which might necessitate one of those players being cut. 

Why wouldn't it be the best in the division, then? 

One reason is that Miami's defensive line is a re-built line, whereas the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills have continuity from defensive lines that were dominant in 2014. 

The Jets were the sixth-best team in the NFL against the run, allowing an average of 93.1 yards per game. Buffalo ranked 11th, allowing 106.4 yards per game. 

If there's consolation for the Dolphins, it's the fact that two of their new defensive linemen were major parts of the top run defense in the NFL. 

As for sacks, the Bills were first in the league with 54, while the Jets were tied for fifth with 45. 

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

Miami might have one of the best defensive lines in the league, but they're in a division with two of the best teams at the position. 

Linebacker might be an even bigger struggle for Miami, as it'd rank fourth in the division at that position. I'd rank the Patriots as the top linebackers in the AFC East, with the Jets in second and Buffalo in third. The good news for the Dolphins here is that with the loss of Brandon Spikes, the Bills' linebackers might regress in 2015, which could move Miami up.  

They'd likely rank third in the division at secondary, but that's because at this point New England's secondary is fairly uneven. The Dolphins' secondary, while having good pieces, is extremely unproven in regards to their second cornerback spot, while the Bills and Jets are more stable as a whole. 

If you go by rankings alone, Miami's defense isn't that great, and in fact it really only boasts one great unit that will have to play spectacularly to mask the flaws along the rest of the defense. 

Statistics provided by NFL.com unless otherwise noted.