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AFC East
ConferenceAmerican Football Conference
LeagueNational Football League
SportAmerican Football
Founded1960
No. of teams     Buffalo Bills

     Miami Dolphins

     New England Patriots

     New York Jets
Most recent champion(s)New England Patriots (14th title)
Most titlesMiami Dolphins and New England Patriots (14 titles)

The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. There are currently four teams that reside in the division: Buffalo Bills of Orchard Park, Miami Dolphins of Miami, New England Patriots of Foxborough, and New York Jets of Florham Park.

Since the division's enfranchisement in 1960, with the creation of the American Football League, the division has represented in 18 Super Bowls and won 7 of them, with the most recent during the 2004 National Football League season by the New England Patriots. The most recent appearance in the Super Bowl by an AFC East team was the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

Entering 2012 the Patriots have the most wins in the division's history, with a record of 414-365-9, with a playoff record of 23-16 (3-4 in Super Bowls). The Dolphins are second at 400-300-4 (having played 84 fewer games than their division rivals) with a playoff record of 20-20 (2-3 in Super Bowls). The Bills are at 364-416-8 with a playoff record of 14-15 but winless having gone to four consecutive Super Bowls. The Jets presently hold a record of 359-421-8, with a playoff record of 12-13 including victory in Super Bowl III. The Patriots and Dolphins have won 14 division titles apiece; the Bills have won ten division titles, and the Jets have won four.

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, Boston Patriots, New York Titans and Houston Oilers. The Miami Dolphins entered the AFL in 1966 as part of its Eastern division.

AFC East[]

File:AFC East Teams.png

Locale of the current 4 AFC East teams

The division was absorbed nearly intact with the AFL–NFL Merger in 1970, but Houston was moved to the AFC Central (formerly the NFL Century Division, now the AFC North) and replaced by the closer Baltimore Colts (from the NFL Coastal Division, which became the NFC West). 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 (the successor franchise to the Oilers, the Tennessee Titans, is also in 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.

None of the AFC East teams currently plays within the central city of their metropolitan area:

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 (who served as an assistant with both Belichick and Parcells); and the Bills had Dick Jauron (fired on November 17, 2009), who served as an assistant with former Parcells assistant Tom Coughlin. The Jets are now coached by Rex Ryan and the Bills are now coached by Chan Gailey. Parcells himself coached the Patriots (1993–6) and the Jets (1997–9) and was Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins until summer, 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 known as the Northeast Division.

Along with the AFC (formerly AFL) West, the AFC East is the oldest NFL division in terms of creation date (1960).

Division lineups[]

Place cursor over year for division champ or Super Bowl team.

Years
AFL Eastern Division NFL AFC East Division
60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 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
Boston Patriots New England Patriots [A]
Buffalo Bills
Houston Oilers [B]  
N Y Titans New York Jets [C]
  Miami Dolphins [D]
  Baltimore Colts [E] Indianapolis Colts [F]
AFC East Division
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
New England Patriots
Buffalo Bills
New York Jets
Miami Dolphins
     Team not in division      Division Won AFL Championship      Division Won Super Bowl      Division Won AFC Championship
A Boston Patriots relocate team to Foxborough, Massachusetts subsequently renamed New England Patriots (1971 season)
B Houston Oilers move to newly created AFC Central division (1970 season) and later are renamed the Tennessee Oilers (1997 season), then Tennessee Titans (1999 season). Moved to AFC South in 2002.
C New York Titans renamed to New York Jets (1963 season)
D Miami Dolphins enfranchised (1966 season)
E Baltimore Colts merge from NFL's Western Division to AFC East (1970 Season)
F Baltmore Colts relocate team to Indianapolis, Indiana subsequently renamed Indianapolis Colts (1984 Season). They moved to the AFC South in 2002

Division champions[]

Season Team Record Playoff Results
1960 Houston Oilers 10–4–0 Won AFL Championship Game
1961 Houston Oilers 10–3–1 Won AFL Championship Game
1962 Houston Oilers 11–3–0 Lost AFL Championship Game
1963! Boston Patriots 7–6–1 Lost AFL Championship Game
1964 Buffalo Bills 12–2–0 Won AFL Championship Game
1965 Buffalo Bills 10–3–1 Won AFL Championship Game
1966 Buffalo Bills 9–4–1 Lost AFL Championship Game
1967 Houston Oilers 9–4–1 Lost AFL Championship Game
1968 New York Jets 11–3–0 Won Super Bowl III
1969 New York Jets 10–4–0 Lost Inter-Divisional Playoffs
1970 Baltimore Colts 11–2–1 Won Super Bowl V
1971 Miami Dolphins 10–3–1 Lost Super Bowl VI
1972 Miami Dolphins 14–0–0 Won Super Bowl VII
1973 Miami Dolphins 12–2–0 Won Super Bowl VIII
1974 Miami Dolphins 11–3–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1975 Baltimore Colts 10–4–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1976 Baltimore Colts 11–3–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1977 Baltimore Colts 10–4–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1978 New England Patriots 11–5–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1979 Miami Dolphins 10–6–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1980 Buffalo Bills 11–5–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1981 Miami Dolphins 11–4–1 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1982+ Miami Dolphins 7–2–0 Lost Super Bowl XVII
1983 Miami Dolphins 12–4–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1984 Miami Dolphins 14–2–0 Lost Super Bowl XIX
1985 Miami Dolphins 12–4–0 Lost AFC Championship Game
1986 New England Patriots 11–5–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1987 Indianapolis Colts 9–6–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1988 Buffalo Bills 12–4–0 Lost AFC Championship Game
1989 Buffalo Bills 9–7–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1990 Buffalo Bills 13–3–0 Lost Super Bowl XXV
1991 Buffalo Bills 13–3–0 Lost Super Bowl XXVI
1992 Miami Dolphins 11–5–0 Lost AFC Championship Game
1993 Buffalo Bills 12–4–0 Lost Super Bowl XXVIII
1994 Miami Dolphins 10–6–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1995 Buffalo Bills 10–6–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1996 New England Patriots 11–5–0 Lost Super Bowl XXXI
1997 New England Patriots 10–6–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
1998 New York Jets 12–4–0 Lost AFC Championship Game
1999 Indianapolis Colts 13–3–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
2000 Miami Dolphins 11–5–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
2001 New England Patriots 11–5–0 Won Super Bowl XXXVI
2002 New York Jets 9–7–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
2003 New England Patriots 14–2–0 Won Super Bowl XXXVIII
2004 New England Patriots 14–2–0 Won Super Bowl XXXIX
2005 New England Patriots 10–6–0 Lost AFC Divisional Playoffs
2006 New England Patriots 12–4–0 Lost AFC Championship Game
2007 New England Patriots 16–0–0 Lost Super Bowl XLII
2008 Miami Dolphins 11–5–0 Lost AFC Wild Card Playoffs
2009 New England Patriots 10–6–0 Lost AFC Wild Card Playoffs
2010 New York Jets 11–5–0 Lost AFC Championships
2011 New England Patriots 13–3–0 Lost Super Bowl XLVI
  • ! – The Patriots and Bills each finished with identical 7–6–1 records in the regular season. The Patriots would win the ensuing playoff game for the right to represent the East in the AFL Championship Game.
  • + – 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[]

Since 1969

* – 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.

Schedule assignments[]

Year Opponents
Intraconf. Interconf.
2012 AFC South NFC West
2013 AFC North NFC South
2014 AFC West NFC North
2015 AFC South NFC East
2016 AFC North NFC West
2017 AFC West NFC South
2018 AFC South NFC North
2019 AFC North NFC East
2020 AFC West NFC West
2021 AFC South NFC South
2022 AFC North NFC North
2023 AFC West NFC East
2024 AFC South NFC West
2025 AFC North NFC South

See also[]

Total playoff berths while in the AFL/AFC East[]

(AFC East records 1960-2011 seasons)
Reflects Colts & Oilers results only 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
Miami Dolphins 14 22 0 5 2
New England
Patriots
14 19 0 7 3
Buffalo Bills 10 17 2 4 0
Indianapolis Colts1 6 10 0 1 1
New York Jets 4 14 1 0 1
Houston Oilers2 4 5 2 0 0
AFC East -Division--
Titles
-Playoff-
Berths
AFL
-Titles-
AFC
-Championships-
Super Bowl
-Championships-
Totals- 1960-2011 52 87 5 17 7

1 Realigned from NFL West 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.

External Links[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at American Football Conference East Division.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with American Football Database, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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