AFC East
The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference in the National Football League. There are currently four teams that reside in the division: the Buffalo Bills ; the Miami Dolphins ; the New England Patriots ; and the New York Jets.
Both perfect regular seasons in professional football since the adoption of a 14-game schedule in the inaugural AFL season and by the NFL in 1961 have been achieved by teams in this division – the 1972 Dolphins, who completed the only perfect season in professional football at 17–0, and the 2007 Patriots, who reached 18–0 before losing Super Bowl XLII. Since the division's enfranchisement in 1960, with the creation of the American Football League, the division has been represented in twenty Super Bowls and won nine of them. The most recent appearance in the Super Bowl by an AFC East team was the Patriots victory in Super Bowl LIII.
At the end of 2018, the Patriots had the most wins in the division's history, with a record of 500–392–9, with a playoff record of 35–19 entering the playoffs of that season. The Dolphins were second at 446–350–4 with a playoff record of 20–21. The Bills were at 406–470–8 with a playoff record of 14–15 and 0–4 in four consecutive Super Bowls. The Jets held a record of 396–480–8, with a playoff record of 12–13 including a victory in Super Bowl III.
In 2012, the Patriots broke a tie with the Dolphins for winning the most division titles; with subsequent division titles in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 the Patriots have won 21 AFL/AFC East division titles to Miami's 14. The Bills have won ten division titles, and the Jets have won four. As of 2019, the last season which the Patriots did not win the AFC East was in 2008, when the Dolphins beat them in a tiebreaker.
Two teams formerly in the division combined for ten AFL/AFC East titles – the Houston Oilers won four division titles during the AFL era while the Baltimore-Indianapolis Colts won six division titles in the 32 seasons they were in the division.
AFL Eastern Division
The American Football League Eastern Division was formed during the inaugural season of the American Football League in 1960, as a counterpart to the AFL Western Division. The divisional alignment consisted of the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Titans and Houston Oilers. The Miami Dolphins entered the AFL in 1966 as part of its Eastern division.The division was absorbed nearly intact with the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, but Houston was moved to the AFC Central and replaced by the closer Baltimore Colts. Despite relocating to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1984, the Colts continued to play in the AFC East until NFL expansion from 31 to 32 teams with the addition of the Houston Texans and 2002 re-alignment when they were moved to the AFC South.
Although Miami is farther south than the home cities of the other three teams, all of which are in the Northeast, all four AFC East teams have historical rivalries among them, dating from their years in the AFL during the 1960s. All four teams in this division are based in the Eastern Time Zone.
None of the AFC East teams currently play within the central city of their metropolitan area :
- The Bills play in Orchard Park, New York; they played in the city of Buffalo from 1960–72.
- The Jets play in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
- The Dolphins play in Miami Gardens, Florida, a suburb of Miami. The Dolphins also played in the Miami neighborhood of Little Havana from 1966-86 when they played at the Orange Bowl.
- The Patriots play in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
All of the teams are or were coached by a first or second generation member of the Bill Parcells coaching tree: the Patriots have Bill Belichick; the Dolphins had Tony Sparano; the Jets had Eric Mangini ; and the Bills had Dick Jauron, who served as an assistant with former Parcells assistant Tom Coughlin. The Jets were coached by Todd Bowles and the Bills were coached by Rex Ryan for 31 games. Parcells himself coached the Patriots and the Jets and was Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins until the summer of 2010.
ESPN's Chris Berman often calls this division the "AFC Adams" due to its geographical similarity to the old Adams Division of the NHL, now succeeded by the Atlantic Division.
Along with the AFC West, the AFC East is the oldest NFL division in terms of creation date.
Division lineups
Place cursor over year for division champ or Super Bowl team.Division champions
- + – A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, Miami had the best record of the division teams.
Wild Card qualifiers
- + – A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, Miami had the best record of the division teams.
Total playoff berths while in the AFL/AFC East
In the sortable table below, teams can be ordered by name, number of division wins, playoff berths, or titles.
| Team | Division Titles | Playoff Berths | AFL Titles | AFC Championships | Super Bowl Championships |
| 22 | 27 | 0 | 11 | 6 | |
| Miami Dolphins | 14 | 23 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| Buffalo Bills | 10 | 19 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| New York Jets | 4 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Indianapolis Colts1* | 6 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Houston Oilers2* | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| AFC East | -Division-- Titles | -Playoff- Berths | AFL -Titles- | AFC -Championships- | Super Bowl -Championships- |
| Totals- 1960–2019 | 60 | 98 | 5 | 21 | 10 |
1 Realigned from NFL Coastal in 1970 merger. Known as the Baltimore Colts before 1984. Realigned into the AFC South beginning with the 2002 NFL season.
2 Realigned into the AFC Central in 1970 merger, and into the AFC South in 2002. Known as Tennessee Oilers from 1997–98, and Tennessee Titans since 1999.