In the AFC East, you've got your MVP-caliber quarterbacks, your big-name coaches, your division winners.
Then, there's the other guys.
The New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills have won every division title since 2008. In fact, they've won all but three AFC East titles since the turn of the century. Meanwhile, the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins have combined for 19 winning seasons in the past 25 years, and haven't both finished above .500 since 2008.
The Jets (2-4) and Dolphins (0-5) are rebuilding in 2026, but ahead of their matchup this Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS) there's a light at the end of the chaos for each franchise.
New York is in its second year under coach Aaron Glenn, after an ugly 3-14 season in which it failed to record a single interception (an NFL first), and general manager Darren Mougey. Sensing the direction last season was going, the Jets traded two of their premier players -- cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams -- in November 2025, landing three first-round picks in return.
If they use them all, the Jets could end up taking six total players in the first round over two years, accelerating a rebuild while still keeping their core players under team control.
New York moved on from Justin Fields and Aaron Rodgers, their last two opening-day starters at quarterback before Geno Smith took over this season, and they are eating up $48 million of the cap space (about 16%) in dead money. More than 1,200 miles south, the Dolphins underwent their second rebuild of the past 10 years, jettisoning core veterans and hiring both a new general manager and head coach in the same offseason for the first time since 2016.
Their moves earned them an NFL-record $180 million in dead cap this season, but also netted them enough draft capital to select a league-high 13 rookies in April's draft.
Here's how both teams are rebuilding in order to go from the other guys to division contenders.
The Jets' three first-round picks in 2026 already have produced five sacks, three touchdowns and two 100-yard receiving days, with each of them taking turns in the spotlight.
Tight end Kenyon Sadiq was the first -- a 105-yard receiving performance in Week 3.
In Week 5, edge defender David Bailey stepped to the forefront with a dominating, three-sack game.
Next came wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. in Week 6 -- 103 receiving yards in his first full game.
It's almost as if the Jets orchestrated the whole thing, arranging a different coming-out party each week. While the breakouts haven't always translated to wins, they illustrate what the Jets are about.
The future.
The 2022 to 2026 draft classes have produced 11 starters and top backups, giving the Jets a talent pipeline filled with players in the 25-and-under category. They comprise the core of the team, a group that will be supplemented by three first-round picks in the 2027 draft.
It's remarkable how the roster has flipped. In 2024, it was a win-now team, with older players such as Rodgers, Davante Adams, Tyron Smith, Mike Williams and Haason Reddick. At the time, Jets owner Woody Johnson called it his best roster in 25 years of ownership. It turned out to be a spectacular (and expensive) failure -- a 5-12 finish that resulted in an organizational reset.
The Jets are enduring significant short-term pain with the hope of long-term success -- a blueprint created by Glenn and Mougey. The Glenn-Mougey regime is 5-18, one of the worst stretches in franchise history, but you're starting to see flowering on previously barren branches.
Mougey's first draft class, 2025, has yielded three starters -- right tackle Armand Membou, tight end Mason Taylor and cornerback Azareye'h Thomas. Opposing scouts say Membou has elite potential.
In addition to the Bailey-Sadiq-Cooper troika, the '26 crop has produced defensive tackle Darrell Jackson Jr., a rising reserve destined for a starting role. They've already played a total of 675 snaps.
"A flamethrower," Glenn said of Bailey, the No. 2 overall pick.
Sadiq?
"He runs 4.3 [in the 40-yard dash], and he's not from this planet," veteran receiver Tim Patrick said.
Cooper?
"He's a playmaker," Smith said. "He finds ways to make catches -- the tough catches -- he makes them look easy."
Rookie cornerback D'Angelo Ponds is developing slowly -- a second-round pick who missed training camp with a calf injury -- but he still factors into the team's future.
The '25 and '26 drafts have combined with young holdovers from the previous regime to give the Jets a foundation. Players such as running backs Breece Hall and Braelon Allen, guard Joe Tippmann and left tackle Olu Fashanu -- all from the '22 and '23 drafts -- are 25-and-under players signed through at least 2027.
Using the trade market, Mougey added young starters in nose tackle T'Vondre Sweat, 25, and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell, 24, both 2024 second-round picks. Mitchell arrived in the Gardner trade with the Indianapolis Colts, which brought back first-round picks in '26 (Sadiq) and '27.
The Jets might be building something special, but everybody knows it's a quarterback-driven league and they have a giant question mark at the position.
Smith, 36, is playing at an ordinary level (his QBR is 54.5, about four points below the league average), and he will be a free agent after the season. In all likelihood, they will use one of those high draft picks on a quarterback, hoping their choice can galvanize what they believe is an emerging roster.
Mougey's predecessor, Joe Douglas, did an admirable job of building the roster, but he botched his two big quarterback moves -- drafting Zach Wilson second overall in 2021 (after trading away Sam Darnold) and dealing for Rodgers in 2023. Those mistakes undermined years of handiwork.
It's incumbent to get the quarterback decision right. It's a familiar refrain. Previous regimes, dating back 50 years to the Joe Namath era, have tried and failed.
For now, Mougey likes his roster -- a blend of young players and "the right mix of veterans to help kind of mold some of these young guys and change the culture," he said in training camp.
The plan is materializing, but they could use some wins for validation.
When the Dolphins signed quarterback Malik Willis this offseason, he expressed excitement about the prospect of throwing to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, the team's No. 1 option and one of the best big-play threats in the league.
Five days later, Waddle was traded to the Denver Broncos in exchange for first-, third- and fourth-round picks. First-year general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan was transparent about why he parted ways with the only established receiver on his team.
"Waddle is 27 years old. We're in an era where the market for receivers is through the roof," he said in March. "And eventually, the chickens are going to come to roost with that. And so when we hit our stride, I'm not sure that all meshed the way that we needed to mesh -- we're in a position with our roster where we need to get younger and cheaper."
Sullivan and first-year coach Jeff Hafley have been clear about the team's vision in 2026; the season would be less about wins and losses, and more about shedding salary and developing their young core.
Miami's first three picks -- offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor and cornerback Chris Johnson in the first round and linebacker Jacob Rodriguez in the second -- have played a combined 913 snaps this season. But the level of rookie participation goes beyond Miami's top three picks.
Johnson, Rodriguez and fifth-round safety Michael Taaffe are the only Dolphins players to log at least 300 snaps this season, and their draft class has combined for 1,920 snaps through five games.
And they're not just on the field -- they're producing.
Rodriguez leads the NFL in tackles per game at 11.4, and has registered double-digit tackles in three games this season -- including a franchise-record 18 against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4.
"The things I was able to see and tell him and for him to get that done for a rookie ... and for him to lead our defense in a place like this and give up 15 points," Hafley said, "I think that's really, really hard, and it's really impressive. He just keeps getting better and better, but it doesn't surprise me because it's the way he works and prepares."
Out of 22 starting spots on offense and defense, 12 of them are occupied by players who are in their first two seasons. And while this type of experience goes a long way toward Miami's goal of reestablishing its young core, it's come with growing pains.
Despite their worst start since 2019, the Dolphins have been in position to win or tie the game late in each of their past three contests. Ultimately, players say, the team's youth has to stop being an excuse as players learn how to close out games.
"I don't care that we're young, I don't care that we just had a new coach," Taaffe said. "Nobody in this locker room wants to give excuses for each other. We're all in the same mindset of 'Let's find a way to win on Sunday, win this practice and then go win on Sunday and be urgent about winning and win now.'"
Most veterans in the Dolphins' locker room are there on one-year deals; the team didn't have the money to do anything more.
But that changes next offseason.
The Dolphins are expected to have nearly $100 million in salary cap space in 2027, with only one player -- left tackle Patrick Paul -- realistically in line for an extension. Sullivan said in August not to ever expect a spending spree while he's in charge of the team, but that might not be so easy if the losses pile up and the money is there.
"We'll be a draft-and-develop team. We will always be a young team," he said. "I've said it before, we will be very, very selective in who we bring in here in free agency and we'll pay our core players.
"I think this is a young man's game. I think from a salary cap standpoint, staying young allows you to be sustainable, and then you go pay your difference-makers versus having a bunch of mercenaries that are overpaid."