For the last decade or so, the only thing you needed to write in an AFC East preview was the Patriots were going to win, someone was going to get called a “dark horse,” one team would be bad and the other would flat out stink.

The Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and New York Jets gladly took turns rotating through those roles as the Patriots asserted their dominance. Wash, rinse, repeat.

This year should look different.

The AFC East won’t be worse without Tom Brady in a Patriots uniform. In fact, the AFC East hasn’t been all that bad; it just hasn’t been competitive. It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around the difference between competitive divisions and good ones. That’s because no team swayed competitive balance within a division like the Patriots.

This year, the Bills, Dolphins and Jets aren’t going into the year 0-2 and it’s going to turn the AFC East into something that resembles a competitive division. Think the AFC North before Lamar Jackson. There’s going to be some tough games and some ugly wins, with the exception of the division’s one train wreck.

NEW YORK JETS

You know how bad the Boston Red Sox are at baseball? That’s going to be the Jets this season.

The Jets starting offense scrimmaged their second-team defense and lost. There’s really no coming back from that, unless their backups are better than the Bills or Patriots starting defense.

Yes, they have Sam Darnold. He’s good, or at least is trending that way. They’ve also got Le’Veon Bell, a dynamic playmaker.

They also have Adam Gase, who’s probably getting fired at the end of the season. The offensive line is a mess and, oh yeah, the defense’s best player hated it in New York so much he got himself traded out of town.

There’s no need to talk more about the Jets. If they win more than five games, they deserve a ticker tape parade.

MIAMI DOLPHINS

Patriots fans must hurt a little watching the Dolphins grow under Brian Flores, who’s been terrific as an NFL coach and probably should have been the one groomed to be Belichick’s heir in New England.

Sure, the Dolphins haven’t won anything and probably won’t this season, but they’ve got promise and that’s more than they’ve had in years. Miami got its quarterback of the future, loaded up on young talent and added a bunch of veterans to help them try to turn into a respectable franchise.

It just won’t happen right away. They’ll be good at times and even competitive, but it’s going to be hard to develop any consistency with the lack of talent on the offensive line, especially with some of the defenses they’ll face. That’s bad news if Miami fans were hoping for Ryan Fitzpatrick’s Fitzmagic to show up like it did when it ruined the Patriots’ season last year.

It will be fun to watch Fitzpatrick run around. Miami’s got a beast in DeVante Parker, a great No. 2 in Preston Williams and then a slew of receivers who get faster the smaller they are. Jordan Howard and Matt Breida provided stability at running back and while neither will crack 1,000 yards, they’re both competent and complementary.

Defensively, Miami plays like Flores coaches — there’s attitude. The Dolphins went out and grabbed free agents who fit or have played in systems Flores has been around. Xavien Howard and Byron Jones give them lockdown corners, which are nice to have in the pass-happy NFL. Miami signed Kyle Van Noy, Emmanuel Ogbah and Shaq Lawson, who provide decent enough talent and the leadership a young defense needs to have. They’ve got young talent up front playing with a hunger in Christian Wilkins and Davon Godchauz.

The Dolphins will be feisty. They’ll continue to get better, probably upset somebody, then play lights out in December when it’s Tua Time. But 2020 isn’t their year. That title is New England’s until someone takes it, but there is one team that could.

BUFFALO BILLS

No team celebrated more meaningless wins than the Buffalo Bills, but that stopped when Sean McDermott came to town and instilled an atmosphere celebrating wins that actually made a season worth something.

Offensively, the Bills’ fortunes hang on Josh Allen, a big-armed talent who sometimes fails to hit water from a boat and, as shown in last season’s playoff loss, doesn’t understand the definition of situational football. Find an undisciplined defense — and there are a lot of them — and Allen makes them pay with his legs.

He had a deep threat with John Brown and a reliable slot in Cole Beasley, who he occasionally overthrew. But adding Stefon Diggs gives Allen a legitimate weapon on offense. It’s going to be hard to shake his own reputation if Allen can’t find a way to put up big numbers in this offense.

But big numbers might not be necessary. The Bills defense is downright nasty. Their weakness might end up being boredom because they’re good everywhere.

Ed Oliver is a nightmare up front, where the Bills have guys like Trent Murphy, Vernon Butler and Jerry Hughes who can all get after the quarterback. Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano both had over 100 tackles last year. Tre’Davious White is the second-best corner in the NFL and leads a secondary that’s among the best in the NFL.

This should be the year the Bills take over as the best team in the AFC East. The problem is that’s been said at one point or another about the Jets and the Dolphins as well. Then Tom Brady and the Patriots went out and continued to get the job done. The Patriots mystique took a hit with Brady’s departure, so we’ll have to see if the same will happen to their grasp on the AFC East.