| Conference | American Football Conference |
|---|---|
| League | National Football League |
| Sport | American football |
| Founded | 1960 (as the American Football League Eastern Division) |
| No. of teams | 4 |
| Most recent champion(s) | Buffalo Bills (15th title) |
| Most titles | New England Patriots (22 titles) |
TheAmerican Football Conference – Eastern Division orAFC East is one of the fourdivisions of theAmerican Football Conference (AFC) in theNational Football League (NFL). There are currently four teams that reside in the division: theBuffalo Bills, theMiami Dolphins, theNew England Patriots, and theNew York Jets. All four members of the AFC East were previously members of the Eastern Division of theAmerican Football League (AFL).
Bothperfect regular seasons in professional football since the adoption of a 14-game schedulein the inaugural AFL season andby 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, andthe 2007 Patriots, who finished 18–1 after losingSuper Bowl XLII.[a] Since the division's establishment in 1960, with the creation of the AFL, the division has been represented in 22Super Bowls and won 11 of them. The most recent appearance in the Super Bowl by an AFC East team was the Patriots victory inSuper Bowl LIII. Among the current teams, they have a total of nine Super Bowl titles: six for the Patriots, two for the Dolphins, and one for the Jets.
The current champions of the AFC East are the Bills, who have won 5 consecutive division titles from2020 through2024. Previously, the Patriots had won eleven consecutively from 2009 through 2019. The Patriots have won the most AFL/AFC East titles, at 22; followed by the Bills at 15 (who also had the best record in the East during the strike shortened 1982 season when divisions were scrapped for a seeded playoffs) and the Dolphins at 14. The Jets have won four. Two teams formerly in the division combined for ten AFL/AFC East titles – theHouston Oilers (now theTennessee Titans) won four division titles (and the 1960 and 1961 AFL titles) during the AFL era[1] while theBaltimore–Indianapolis Colts won six division titles (andSuper Bowl V) in the 32 seasons they were in the division.[2]
The AFC East teams have won 26 AFL or AFC championships: including 11 by the Patriots, 6 by the Bills, and 5 by the Dolphins. The now-Titans won 2; the Jets and Colts won one each.
The American Football League Eastern Division was formed during the inaugural season of theAmerican Football League in 1960, as a counterpart to the AFLWestern Division. The divisional alignment consisted of the Buffalo Bills, Boston Patriots, New York Titans andHouston Oilers. TheMiami Dolphins entered the AFL in 1966 as part of its Eastern division.[3]
The division was absorbed nearly intact with theAFL–NFL merger in 1970, but Houston was moved to the AFC Central (formerly theNFL Century Division, now theAFC North) and replaced by the closerBaltimore Colts (from theNFL Coastal Division, which became theNFC West). Despite relocating toIndianapolis, Indiana in 1984, theColts continued to play in the AFC East until NFL expansion from 31 to 32 teams with the addition of theHouston Texans (successor club in Houston to the Oilers) and 2002 re-alignment when they were moved to theAFC South (the successor franchise to the Oilers, the Tennessee Titans, is also in the AFC South).[4]
AlthoughMiami is further south than the home cities of the other three teams, all of which are in theNortheast, all four AFC East teams have historical rivalries among them, dating from their years in the AFL during the 1960s.[5] All four teams in this division are based in theEastern Time Zone.
None of the AFC East teams currently play within the central city of their metropolitan area (in New England's case, they also reflect the region they are based in):
Almost analogously, three out of the fourNFC East teams do not actually play within the city of their naming (only thePhiladelphia Eagles do so).
All of the teams are or were coached by a first or second-generation member of theBill Parcellscoaching tree: the Patriots hadBill Belichick; the Dolphins hadTony Sparano; the Jets hadEric Mangini (who served as an assistant with both Belichick and Parcells); and the Bills hadDick Jauron (fired on November 17, 2009), who served as an assistant with former Parcells assistantTom Coughlin. The Jets were coached byTodd Bowles (2015–2018) and the Bills were coached byRex Ryan for 31 games (the entire 2015–16 season, and he was fired before the last game of the 2016–17 season and replaced with interim Head CoachAnthony Lynn). Parcells himself coached the Patriots (1993–96) and the Jets (1997–99) and was Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins until the summer of 2010.[6]
ESPN'sChris Berman often calls this division the "AFC Adams" due to its geographical similarity to the oldAdams Division of theNHL, now succeeded by theAtlantic Division.
Along with the AFC (formerly AFL) West, the AFC East is the oldest NFL division in terms of creation date (1960).
Place cursor over year for division champion or Super Bowl team.
| AFL Eastern Division | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | |||||||||
| 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 |
| Buffalo Bills | |||||||||
| Boston Patriots | |||||||||
| New York Titans | New York Jets[C] | ||||||||
| Houston Oilers[B] | |||||||||
| Miami Dolphins[D] | |||||||||
| AFC East Division | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 2000s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 |
| Buffalo Bills | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boston Patriots | New England Patriots[A] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New York Jets | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Baltimore Colts[E] | Indianapolis Colts[F] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Miami Dolphins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AFC East Division | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| New England Patriots | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Buffalo Bills | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| New York Jets | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Miami Dolphins | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team not in division Division Won AFL Championship Division Won AFC Championship Division Won Super Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||
(AFC East records 1960–2021 seasons)
Reflects Colts & Oilers resultsonly while in the East Division.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New England Patriots | 22 | 28 | 0 | 11 | 6 |
| Buffalo Bills | 15 | 23 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Miami Dolphins | 13 | 24 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| New York Jets | 4 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Indianapolis Colts1* | 6 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Houston Oilers2* | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| AFC East | Division Titles | Playoff Berths | AFL Titles | AFC Championships | Super Bowl Championships |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totals- 1960–2021 | 64 | 104 | 5 | 22 | 10 |
1 Realigned fromNFL Coastal in1970 merger. Known as the Baltimore Colts before 1984. Realigned into theAFC South beginning with the2002 NFL season.
2 Realigned into theAFC Central in1970 merger, and into the AFC South in 2002. Known as Tennessee Oilers from 1997 to 1998, and Tennessee Titans since 1999.
| (#) | Denotes team that won theSuper Bowl |
| (#) | Denotes team that won theAFC Championship |
| (#) | Denotes team that won theAFL Championship |
| (#) | Denotes team that qualified for theNFL Playoffs orAFL Playoffs |
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