1. Buffalo Bills

Coach: Sean McDer­mott (fourth year — 25–23 reg­u­lar sea­son, 0–2 playoffs)

2019 record: 10–6 (sec­ond place in AFC East; lost to Hous­ton in wild card round)

Offen­sive play-caller: Coor­di­na­tor Bri­an Daboll (third year)

Quar­ter­back sit­u­a­tion: The Bills are all in with for­mer Wyoming quar­ter­back Josh Allen, 24. Buf­fa­lo moved up five spots in 2018 to draft Allen sev­enth over­all. Allen is 15–12 as a reg­u­lar sea­son starter with 30 touch­downs and 21 inter­cep­tions. He uses his ath­let­ic abil­i­ty to extend plays and has 17 rush­ing touch­downs in two years. If the Bills are to dethrone the Patri­ots atop the divi­sion, Allen will be the key.

Young skill-posi­tion play­ers: In the third round of the last two drafts, the Bills select­ed run­ning backs Devin Sin­gle­tary (23, 2018) and Zack Moss, 22, and tight end Daw­son Knox, 23 (both 2019). But the big off­sea­son move was 26-year-old receiv­er Ste­fon Dig­gs from Min­neso­ta in exchange for a pack­age that includ­ed a first-round pick. Dig­gs has 30 touch­downs among his 365 catch­es in four years. He is the game-break­er this scor­ing-chal­lenged Bills offense needed.

Key sta­tis­tic: 1995. Buffalo’s last play­off win came after the ’95 sea­son when it beat Mia­mi 37–22 in a wild card game.

2. New England Patriots

Coach: Bill Belichick (21st year with Patri­ots — 237–83 reg­u­lar sea­son, 30–11 play­offs with six Super Bowl titles; 26th year over­all — 273–127 over­all, 31–12 playoffs)

2019 record: 12–4 (first in AFC East, lost to Ten­nessee in wild card round)

Offen­sive play-caller: Coor­di­na­tor Josh McDaniels (ninth year of sec­ond tour with Patriots)

Quar­ter­back sit­u­a­tion: For the first time since before Drew Bled­soe was draft­ed in 1993, the Patri­ots entered camp in late July with uncer­tain­ty at quar­ter­back. Bled­soe, a for­mer No. 1 pick, gave way to Tom Brady, who start­ed every open­er from 2002–19 but one (when he was sus­pend­ed for Deflate­gate). For­mer NFL MVP Cam New­ton signed a one-year deal with the expec­ta­tion he would win the job over sec­ond-year pass­er Jar­rett Stidham.

Young skill posi­tion play­ers: In the last two years, New Eng­land draft­ed run­ning back Sony Michel (25, 2018 first round), receiv­er N’Keal Har­ry (22, 2019 first round), run­ning back Damien Har­ris (23, 2019 third round) and tight ends Devin Asi­asi, 23, and Dal­ton Keene, 21 (both in this year’s third round). The Patri­ots need Michel to stay healthy and Har­ry to emerge to allow their offense to move for­ward minus Brady.

Key sta­tis­tic: 29.5. Points per game by New Eng­land since 2010, most in the NFL.

3. Miami Dolphins

Coach: Bri­an Flo­res (sec­ond year, 5–11 reg­u­lar season)

2019 record: 5–11 (fourth in AFC East)

Offen­sive play-caller: Coor­di­na­tor Chan Gai­ley (first year of sec­ond tour with Dolphins)

Quar­ter­back sit­u­a­tion: In Tua the Dol­phins trust. Even by win­ning five games, the Dol­phins were in posi­tion to draft Alabama’s Tua Tago­v­ailoa fifth over­all. A nation­al cham­pi­on as a true fresh­man for the Crim­son Tide who had 87 touch­down pass­es and only 11 inter­cep­tions in 32 games (24 starts), Tago­v­ailoa is equal parts nat­ur­al play-mak­er and leader. Eleven dif­fer­ent quar­ter­backs have led the Dol­phins in pass­ing yards since Dan Mari­no retired after the 1999 season.

Young skill posi­tion play­ers: The Dol­phins have built their skill-posi­tion sta­ble through trades and free agency. Mia­mi used first‑, sec­ond- and fourth-round picks this year on offen­sive line­men. Among their receivers, tight ends and run­ning backs, only tight end Mike Geisic­ki, 24, was a sec­ond-round pick by the team since 2016. DeVante Park­er, a 2015 first-round pick, leads the receivers.

Key sta­tis­tic: Minus-414. The Dol­phins’ point dif­fer­en­tial over the last three years (18–30 record), worst in the NFL dur­ing that span.

4. New York Jets

Coach: Adam Gase (sec­ond year with Jets — 7–9 reg­u­lar sea­son; fifth year over­all — 30–34 reg­u­lar sea­son, 0–1 playoffs)

2019 record: 7–9 (third in AFC East)

Offen­sive play-caller: Gase (sec­ond year)

Quar­ter­back sit­u­a­tion: Sam Darnold, 23, was draft­ed third over­all in 2018 and has an 11–15 record with 36 touch­downs and 28 inter­cep­tions. But does Darnold have enough tal­ent around him and sta­bil­i­ty on the coach­ing staff to even­tu­al­ly suc­ceed? It sure doesn’t look like it.

Young skill posi­tion play­ers: The Jets draft­ed tight end Chris Hern­don, 24, in the 2018 fourth round and receiv­er Den­zel Mims, 22, in this year’s sec­ond round and Flori­da run­ning back Lam­i­cal Per­ine, 22, in the fourth round. Darnold needs Mims and Hern­don to be go-to tar­gets for the offense to gain some type of pulse.

Key sta­tis­tic: Four. Con­sec­u­tive los­ing sea­sons for the Jets (5–11, 5–11, 4–12 and 7–9), the franchise’s longest such streak since 1962–65.