Can the Bills break?
For the past 11 years, and 16 of the last 17, the New England Patriots won the AFC East Division title thanks in large part to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
The only year the Patriots did not win the AFC East was 2008, when Tom Brady tore his ACL the first week. Amazingly, New England still went 11-5, and lost the title on a tiebreaker to Miami.
But guess what Buffalo Bills’ fans?
Brady is gone. He has taken his talents to the NFC South with Tampa Bay, and there is optimism that the Bills, coming into 2020 off a 10-6 playoff season, will finally end the stranglehold on the division title.
According to many Pennsylvania sportsbooks, Buffalo is a slight favorite with Parx at odds of +120 to win the AFC East, just ahead of the Patriots (+130).
Buffalo opens with the New York Jets, and is already almost a touchdown favorite (-6.5) with BetRivers promo offers to open its 2020 campaign on Sunday, September 13 with a home victory. That looks like a solid play, considering the Jets may struggle again this season. In fact, the Bills have a very manageable schedule through their first four games: after the Jets, Buffalo gets Miami on the road, the Rams at home, and the Raiders on the road.
One of the better prop plays for Buffalo is can the team start 4-0, with those odds priced at +500. If you think this is the Bills year to sweep the AFC East, you can get them at +1200 to go 6-0 in the division.
Of course, much of this depends on the continuing improvement of quarterback Josh Allen, who is going into his third year under center for the Bills. Allen threw for 3,089 yards and 20 touchdowns, and ran for another 510 and nine scores. If he can continue to get better, this team could win at least the same amount of games (10) as last season, and maybe more.
His Head Coach Sean McDermott seems to think Allen is on the path to improving even more. McDermott spoke to reporters before practice last week and said this of his quarterback.
“I have been around some quarterbacks who started off very much like Josh has and developed and played at a high level,” said McDermott. “Obviously, we felt like we unearthed a lot of who he was going through the draft process, but until you are around people multiple years you really don’t know him as well as you want to.”
“And so now in year three, just seeing him grow as a young man on and off the field has been fun to watch. We are encouraged by Josh’s development and the time he put in when he was away from us every offseason including this offseason. He has worked on his game and he continues to polish his game and get on the same page with his receivers over the last couple of weeks now.”
That could make the over win total of 8.5 a solid play at -130 odds.
Is this Buffalo’s year to win the AFC East?
It is definitely worth a play.