Ugh. I guess it’s good to get this one out of the way early. The tanking New York Jets travel to upstate New York to face off against the tanking Buffalo Bills in what could already be a battle for the 2018 No. 1 pick.
The Game: New York Jets at Buffalo Bills (-8.5)
The History
The Bills lead the all-time series 60-53. They are one of the few NFL rivalries that never recorded a tie.
New York swept the Bills last season, 37-31 and 30-10. Before that Buffalo won five straight over the Jets.
The longest New York win streak over the Bills was seven consecutive games from September, 1984 to September, 1987.
The Bills won 10 straight in the Jim Kelly era from November, 1987 to October, 1992.
The two teams have met just once in the playoffs with the Bills winning 31-27 in December, 1981.
NEW YORK JETS
Here we go people, the worst depth chart in the NFL will take the field early on Sunday. God help you if you choose to watch it. Josh McCown “won” the quarterback job in the preseason, if you can call it that. There actually isn’t a horrible wide receiver corps here that New York has put together completely by accident. Jermaine Kearse is their best guy, acquired in a trade with the Seattle Seahawks just a few days ago. The second best guy is probably Jeremy Kerley, who they just signed off the street as a free agent. I like rookies Chad Hansen and ArDarius Stewart too, but they’re both first year guys and in this offense, with these quarterbacks, there’s not going to be a lot of work for them.
Matt Forte remains on the team in spite of the Jets’ best efforts to trade him. Expect him to split plenty of time with Bilal Powell, if not watching Powell take over the starting job completely. Hell, it could happen in this game.
There’s still some talent on New York’s defense at every level. They drafted well, but there are plenty of holes, especially to run through which is what the Bills will do.
BUFFALO BILLS
Unlike the Jets, the Bills have some legitimate talent on offense. But just like the Jets, they are severely lacking at the quarterback position. Tyrod Taylor, for all his faults, will still be the best quarterback on the field and Buffalo will also boast the best offensive player in running back LeSean McCoy.
There were some questions about Taylor’s ability to start this game as he spent most of the last two weeks in the league’s concussion protocol. He was cleared just in time to get to practice and prepare for the opening week and, most likely, spend the entire day overthrowing Zay Jones and Jordan Matthews. Don’t be surprised to see Taylor do more with his legs than his arm as his deep ball is his most consistent and he doesn’t have a single guy that can run those routes on this team.
Defensively, Buffalo is converting to a 4-3 and how successful that goes will determine how close this game will be. They have the defensive backfield to handle New York’s wide receivers and their defensive front should be able to cause consistent pressure with Shaq Lawsom and Marcell Dareus. I’m curious to see how new head coach Sean McDermott will use outside linebacker Lorenzo Alexander. Alexander broke through as a pass rusher last season in the Bills’ 3-4. McDermott could be trying to convert him to a classic outside linebacker or, more interesting, could be using him as a fifth pass rushing lineman to keep the heat on McCown and let the safeties and corners do their work.
The Pick
I don’t know when you’ll see another Buffalo Bills (-8.5) line again and that shows you how little respect the oddsmakers have for this tanking New York team. Buffalo scored points last season at times, but I don’t see it happening in this game. I see it being ugly and close. Bills 20, Jets 13
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