Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel sends strong message about the Bills the day before primetime showdown

The Buffalo Bills have won the AFC East four consecutive years. In that stretch, the Miami Dolphins are 1-7 against the Bills, and Josh Allen's stats have been absurdly good , compared to Tua Tagovailoa's which, uh, haven't.

This information is clearly not news to Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.

"If you want to do anything in this league, generally, you can't skip over the much-mandated step of winning your division, and there's one team that's won the division consecutive years. You could say that they, by de facto, the own the division until somebody takes it from them," McDaniel told the media.

The Buffalo Bills own the division until somebody takes it from them. Let that sink in.

While the discourse surrounding the Bills this offseason has been that they're in a retooling phase , which I completely agree with, the teams still have to go out and play the games. Don't tell the players that they aren't competing. To them, it's time to win.

As long as the Bills have No. 17 under center, they have a chance to win each and every time they step on the field. That's the truth of it. Other than when they go against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills have the clear advantage over their opponent at the most important position in all of sports – quarterback.

Whether or not the Bills continue their streak of AFC East division titles remains to be seen. It's a long season. But, as McDaniel said, they're the defending division champions until they're not. Buffalo will look to stay the hunted, instead of becoming the hunter, starting with their Thursday Night Football clash against Tagovailoa and the Dolphins on Thursday Night Football.

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Follow along all season for all the latest Buffalo Bills news. You can also find me on X @JonHelmkamp .