The New England Patriots are no longer the class of the AFC East. Until proven otherwise, that title now belongs to the Buffalo Bills.
Buffalo enters the 2022 NFL season as the heavy favorite to win the division for the third consecutive year. It also currently has the best odds to win Super Bowl 57, according to most sportsbooks.
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But just how big is the gap between the Bills and Patriots heading into the new campaign? The Athletic's Tim Graham joined NBC Sports Boston's Early Edition to share his take, and his answer may come as a bit of a surprise.
"I'm hesitant to say," Graham said. "Because probably the safest bet in all of the NFL last year was that the Bills would breeze to the AFC East championship, and there was the New England Patriots still lurking around in December after that embarrassing Week 13 loss in which Mac Jones threw an entire three times for 19 yards. Then the next week, the Bills go down to Tampa Bay and suffer a heartbreaker to old friend Tom Brady, and you have a situation where the Patriots are still very much inside the Bills' heads.
"It took those subsequent victories over the Patriots in Foxboro and then no punts in the 47-17 game in the playoffs. So those last two games created some distance and I think Bills fans love the idea of Matt Patricia calling the plays or whatever's been going on there in Foxboro throughout the summer. Bills fans are excited about it, but there's so much psychological damage that has been done over the previous 20 years that I don't think that anybody is taking anything for granted in regards to the Patriots being in a rebuilding year, or a bridge year, or anything like that. They are still public enemy No. 1, the team to beat."
It's fair to say the Patriots are "public enemy No. 1" as long as Bill Belichick is head coach, but the tide has undoubtedly turned since Brady's departure. Our Tom E. Curran weighed in with his thoughts on where the two AFC East rivals stand.
New England Patriots
"It's pretty much self-evident that the Patriots roster right now is lacking in talent," Curran said. "Additionally, the sidelines, you've got Bill Belichick's giant brain and then a whole mess of question marks. So I think the gap is sizable.
"But for Tim, it's interesting to hear that because not only is it the 20 years in New England, but it's the previous 10 years when the Bills were loaded to the gills with so much talent and they'd find a way for something to go wrong whether it was a lost helmet or a wide right or you name it. There must be just mounds and mounds of scar tissue there."
Watch the full Early Edition segment with Graham below: