A month ago, Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey openly contemplated an AFC East title while a guest on Joe Rose's radio show on WQAM in Miami.

Some might snicker, but what else would you expect a competitor to do? The man is confident in his team.

I proposed the circumstances surrounding the Bills organization would make winning the AFC East this year more astonishing than the Miami Dolphins rebounding from 1-15 to win the title in 2008. They didn't draft a Jake Long with the first overall pick or have a Chad Pennington fall out of the sky in training camp.

Even so, there's a steady history of last-place teams winning their division a year later.

Fifteen teams have pulled off the feat since 2000. Twelve of them had records as bad or worse than Buffalo's 6-10 mark.

The New England Patriots did it in 2001, surging from 5-11 to a Super Bowl victory.

The only year a team hasn't gone from last to first in the past decade was 2002. Multiple teams did in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006.