AFC East
The AFC East is a Division of the American Football -Liga National Football League (NFL). The NFL teams are divided into two conferences ( American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC)), each of which is divided into four divisions.
The four teams in the AFC East are the Buffalo Bills , the Miami Dolphins , the New England Patriots, and the New York Jets . They come from the former American Football League (AFL), which merged with the National Football League (NFL) in 1970 .
The champions of the division are sure to advance to the play-offs . In addition to the four division winners of each conference, the two teams with the best win ratios will also advance to the play-offs. This means that up to three AFC East teams can qualify for the play-offs.
history
The division was founded in 1960 as the AFL Eastern Division and was thus one of two divisions of the then newly founded AFL. The founding members at the time were the Buffalo Bills, the Boston Patriots , the New York Titans and the Houston Oilers . In 1966 the AFL granted the license to set up a new franchise . The businessman Joe Robbie and actor Danny Thomas , who had acquired the license, decided to choose Miami as the location for the franchise. This is how the Miami Dolphins were founded in 1966 and became the fifth member of the division. In 1970 the next and biggest change in the division followed. Because this year the AFL merged with the NFL and thus there were more teams in the league, which led to the divisions of the two conferences being reorganized. Therefore, in the AFL Eastern Division , which was renamed AFC East as part of the merger, the Houston Oilers, which were now part of the AFC Central , were replaced by the Baltimore Colts . The Colts then belonged to the AFC East until the end of the 2001 season . From the 2002 season they then had to change due to the new expansion team from Houston to the AFC South , so that each division had the same number of members again.
Play-off statistics
Statistics up to and including 2019 :
| team | Division championships | Year (s) | Playoff participation | AFL Championships | AFC Championships | Super Bowl victories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New England Patriots | 22nd |
1963 , 1978 , 1986 , 1996 , 1997 , 2001 , 2003 , 2004 , 2005 , 2006 , 2007 , 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2016 , 2017 , 2018 , 2019 |
27 | 0 | 11 | 6th |
| Miami Dolphins | 13 |
1971 , 1972 , 1973 , 1974 , 1979 , 1981 , 1983 , 1984 , 1985 , 1992 , 1994 , 2000 , 2008 |
23 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| Buffalo Bills | 10 |
1964 , 1965 , 1966 , 1980 , 1988 , 1989 , 1990 , 1991 , 1993 , 1995 |
19th | 2 | 4th | 0 |
| New York Jets | 4th | 1968 , 1969 , 1998 , 2002 | 14th | 1 | 0 | 1 |
