The NFL won’t jumpstart its season until late July but in the AFC East, it once again is about only two teams and the Miami Dolphins is one of them.

The AFC East used to be the premier division in the AFC and challenged for all of the NFL but those days were long ago and now it is only about the New England Patriots and their continued rampant run of the league. Off-season power rankings can make you laugh but this year, well, o.k. it really isn’t any different.

New England is at the top once again and that is not a surprise at all. The defending Super Bowl champions are again expected to make another run at the Lombardy Trophy. After the Patriots, however, the rest of the division is really just a mix of mud and sand. Is there a clear number two or three?

The consensus around the league and media is that the Miami Dolphins have the fourth place locked up. It is actually kind of funny that most of the off-season talk surrounding the AFC East is how bad the Dolphins will be this year and not how good the Bills and Jets could be.

While Adam Gase gets his share of coverage, it tends to be mostly negative and the Jets have made more headlines that trend downward than upward but when the AFC East news comes around, it is always the Dolphins that are being talked about.

Brian Flores’ hiring has been universally applauded but until he does anything on the field with his team, it really doesn’t matter what the hype train brings. Flores has fewer wins than Cam Cameron.

So if the AFC East has the Patriots at the top and the Dolphins at the bottom, who is 2nd and 3rd?

The Bills have had a quiet off-season and that is a good thing. I would put them squarely in the 2nd position but I don’t think they are remotely close to challenging the Patriots for the division and in reality, the Bills will probably concede the division somewhere around week 13 or 14.

If the Bills are two then that means that the Jets are three and frankly, there isn’t anything to say about the Jets. No one knows what exactly they are in for this year with Adam Gase but clearly, there are already issues with the team and organization evidenced by the firing of their general manager.

The only certainty this year as the Dolphins continue to rebuild is that the 2019 season will be a long one for Dolphins fans as they wait for the Brian Flores system and scheme to develop.