Mike McDaniel gets brutally honest about who owns the AFC East right now

For 20 years, the AFC East belonged to the New England Patriots. For the past four years, it's belonged to the Buffalo Bills. Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is well aware that the AFC East is the Bills' division to lose at this point.

"There's one team that's won the division consecutive years. They by de facto own the division until somebody takes it from them."

It is interesting that McDaniel doesn't directly say it's the Bills but we all know who he's talking about. Once Tom Brady bolted from the AFC East following the 2019 season, the division become Buffalo's to lose and they've dominated ever since, winning four straight AFC East titles.

Mike McDaniel says Bills own division until it's taken from them

The Dolphins had plenty of opportunities to win the AFC East last season and it appeared they'd do so right until the very end. They were several games up on the Bills, who at one point were 6-6 on the year, but the Bills ripped off five straight wins to close out the regular season. They won their fourth division title by beating the Dolphins in the final week of the season.

Miami hasn't won the AFC East since the 2008 season when Brady missed the entire year and Chad Pennington was running the offense.

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Last year the Dolphins struggled against teams with winning records so that's something they need to work on this season. If they want to be taken seriously and be a true contender for the AFC East crown, they can't just beat up on bad teams and then let good teams beat up on them.

Throw in that the New York Jets are going to be more competitive this season now that Aaron Rodgers is healthy and the division is even more competitive. That being said, if there's an opportunity to catch up to the Bills, it's this year. They lost a lot of talent in the offseason and that should impact them on the field.

McDaniel is saying all of the right things, however. Until the Bills don't win the division, it's theirs to lose. Let's hope this is the year where that changes and that the Dolphins can be at the top of the division by season's end.

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