The AFC East as a whole is one of the few divisions in football where all four teams have their established franchise quarterback. Obviously, the Bills have the MVP in Josh Allen under center as the best one by a mile. The Patriots have a hopeful franchise guy in second-year quarterback Drake Maye. Miami has Tua Tagovailoa who has thrived under Mike McDaniel, when he is on the field. Then there are the Jets who are set to start from the ground with Justin Fields who they signed in free agency.
You can make the argument that only the Bills and Patriots are the only teams within the division that have stability at the quarterback position. We all know the greatness of Allen and Maye has demonstrated that he can be a franchise player. He had almost nothing to work with last year and still kept the Patriots aflow as best possible. He even gave the Bills some problems in their first meeting last season.
As for the Jets and Dolphins, you might be thinking “How are the Dolphins not in the same tier as Buffalo and New England?” Well, it comes down to the fact that Tua Tagovailoa has a long injury history going back to college up to the NFL. Most notably, concussions have been a major issue throughout his pro career to the point where there was a time where people were calling for him to retire.
With the Jets, who knows how Justin Fields will be in a new system with yet another defensive-minded head coach. Fields is now on his third team in his career, but it’s only a two-year contract so he still has something to prove.
Despite the Jets coming into the NFL Draft with the only new quarterback in the division, Moe Morton from Bleacher Report seems to be more confident in the Jets’ QB situation instead of the Dolphins.
Morton put together a “QB panic meter” piece for all 32 NFL teams, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being low panic and 10 being a huge panic). Fans might be a little surprised at Morton’s rankings within the AFC East.
Team | Panic Meter (1=low, 10=high) |
|---|---|
Buffalo Bills | 1 |
New England Patriots | 3 |
New York Jets | 5 |
Miami Dolpins | 7 |
There should be no surprises with the Bills or the Pats’ listing. As for the Jets and Dolphins, that’s a different story. Fields should hopefully be an upgrade over Aaron Rodgers from last season and because he showed a little bit of promise last year in Pittsburgh, maybe that’s why there is more confidence in the Jets.
As for the Dolphins, Morton went into depth about the durability concern with Tagovailoa and that is why the Dolphins must have made the move to bring in Zach Wilson as a backup.
"However, Tagovailoa has missed 20 games and only played through a full season once. So, the Dolphins made a logical move to sign Wilson to fill the primary backup role."Moe Morton, Bleacher Report
There is no doubt that when Tua is on the field, he is effective because of the way Mike McDaniel has built Miami’s offense. The problem is that we always have to say “when on the field” when it comes to Tua. The injury concern will always be in the conversation every season.
Entering the draft, even though the Dolphins are rolling with Tua and Zach Wilson, it would make sense to bring in another quarterback that they can keep on a cheap four-year contract, but that they can also develop should anything change with Tua’s career.