USA Today predicts AFC East team will win Super Bowl and it's not the Bills

Is the Buffalo Bills reign of divisional titles ending?

USA Today predicted winners for all 272 regular-season games and the playoffs, and projects an AFC East will reach Super Bowl 59. It's not the Bills.

NFL reporter Nate Davis picked the New York Jets in the division with a 12-7 record and then hoist the Lombardi Trophy. He attributed their success to Aaron Rodgers saying he's healthy in returning from a torn Achilles, and "the roster – on paper – looks as good as any in the league."

Buffalo finishes at 10-7 in the projections, securing the No. 5 seed as the top wild-card. But the Bills are bounced in the wild-card playoff round by the Cincinnati Bengals. Buffalo's regression is due to a diminished roster from salary cap casualties and a difficult schedule, USA Today says.

Davis has the Jets running the table in the postseason with conference playoff wins against the Cleveland Browns, Bengals and top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs, before topping Rodgers' former Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.

For what it's worth: Davis also picked the Jets in 2023 to win the AFC East and reach the Super Bowl. Rodgers played four snaps, and the Jets went 7-10.

Here was USA Today's breakdown of the Bills:

They won seven of their final nine games last season, both losses by three points (including a playoff heartbreaker at home against the Chiefs), after installing Joe Brady as the offensive coordinator. Though WR Stefon Diggs wasn’t a major component of that hot finish, Buffalo will have to carry on without him, WR2 Gabe Davis and quite a few former key players the team just couldn’t afford to keep. And the Bills better adapt to their new reality by midseason because, between Weeks 9 and 15, they’ll face just one team that didn’t reach postseason in 2023 – and that apparent reprieve is a Week 11 trip to Indy. Maintaining their divisional eminence might be too much to ask of QB Josh Allen and Co. in the midst of this adjustment period.

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