Entering the 2010 season, the Miami Dolphins were a young ascending team with aspirations of winning the AFC East. Another year and another losing season later the Dolphins are caught in limbo. Miami has been building a strong roster, but they have a big question mark under center in Chad Henne. In addition, Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are both free agents this offseason.

The Dolphins also have issues with their secondary. Chris Clemons is a liability in coverage and Miami also lacks a reliable nickel corner. They could also use a solid rush linebacker to add to their front seven as well.

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The rich keep getting richer. That’s a saying Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots are sporting as they head into the offseason loaded with draft picks. After finishing the 2010-11 regular season with an NFL best 14-2 record, the Patriots head into the draft with a total of nine draft picks, which includes two in each of the first three rounds.

Despite the great regular season success, the New York Jets were able to expose what few holes New England did have in the second round of the playoffs to send them to the golf course early. With the plethora of early draft picks, look for the Patriots to be able to add the necessary talent to be right back at the top next season.

Tom Brady led a rag-tag offensive group that thrived off the success of its passing game even with the loss of Randy Moss. With the emergences of rookie tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski, Brady threw 36 touchdowns compared to only four interceptions and set a NFL record with 335 straight pass attempts without a pick. Deion Branch came in mid-season after being acquired by Seattle and provided Brady another viable target, but the Patriots still lacked a true deep threat after trading Moss.

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For the second in time in as many years, the New York Jets fell one game shy of the Super Bowl. Starting with being featured on the HBO Series and Hard Knocks and ending with an AFC Championship loss at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it was a roller coaster season for Rex Ryan's club.

On the offensive side of the ball, Mark Sanchez and company had an up and down season. Sanchez looked clueless at times and brilliant in other games. Ladainian Tomlinson looked like the L.T. of old during the early part of the season, but struggled to sustain his production throughout the season. The wide receiver position was one of strength for the Jets once Santonio Holmes returned from his suspension.

However, Holmes is now a free agent along with New York's other talented wideout, Braylon Ewards.It is unlikely that the Jets will be able to resign both. In addition to retaining offensive weapons, the continued development of Mark Sanchez will determine the fate of New York's offense in 2011.

Defensively the Jets were once again near the top of the league in all major statistical categories. Despite their recent success, New York's defense has some issues to address. The biggest question surrounding Rex Ryan's stop unit is whether or not free agent cornerback Antonio Cromartie will be resigned.

Even with the services of Cromartie and Revis, the Jets had trouble closing out games defensively. New York's defense allowing Ben Roethlisberger to seal the deal was representative of their entire season. In addition to replacing or resigning Cromartie, the Jets have a 34 year old free agent on the defensive line in Shaun Ellis. Meanwhile, Rex Ryan is still in need of a pass rushing linebacker for his 3-4 defense.

Last offseason, The Jets made a big splash by signing a handful of high priced free agents and trading for Santonio Holmes and Antonio Cromartie. In 2011, the Jets are trying to hold their roster together while filling holes with young players in the 2011 NFL Draft.

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For the fourth time in the past decade the Buffalo Bills entered the season with a new head coach and effectively began the rebuilding process once again. Along with the Detroit Lions, the Bills own the longest playoff drought in the league at 11 seasons and counting. Early in the season, Ralph Wilson issued a public apology to the fans of the franchise and admitted that the rebuilding process will probably take another three to four years. The 92 year old has owned the franchise since its inception in 1959 and has never seen a postseason drought that’s lasted this long. With Toronto knocking down the door to own an NFL franchise and the Bills already playing one regular season home game a year at the Rogers Centre, the future of the franchise in the Queen City looks bleak. 

As grim as things currently look for the Bills, they did make strides this season and found themselves contending in almost every game. The Bills have found budding stars in late round picks like Kyle Williams and Stevie Johnson, but have failed miserably at finding first and second round picks that can be consistent contributors to the team’s success. First rounders like Aaron Maybin and Mike Williams have been monumental busts while Leodis McKelvin and Donte Whitner have been marginal at best.  Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey have their work cut out for them over the next few years but here are the Bills’ biggest needs for 2011.

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The Miami Dolphins have a quarterback situation in flux.

In 2009, Chad Henne looked like a future star. He showed in 2010 that may not be the case. For the second year in a row, Henne threw more interceptions than touchdowns as Miami lost four of the last five games he played in. The game the Dolphins won, against the Jets, Henne completed 27.8 percent of his passes.

So Henne basically himself out of being the quarterback of the future for Miami. As The Phinsider notes today, though, that Henne should be given a season under new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.

Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland may tend to agree. On 790-AM in Miami today, Ireland said Henne is "on pace with some of the slower-developing QBs in the NFL."

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