Mandatory minicamps are in full swing around the country, and the 2026 NFL season draws nearer by the day, which makes this an ideal time to take stock of the talent scattered across the league and the players who will decide the Super Bowl race this fall.

Each Tuesday, through training camps opening in mid-July, we’ll be breaking down the five best players in each division, continuing today with the AFC East, plus the one non-quarterback that an NFL scout, coach, or executive would choose first to build his team around.

Here’s an in-depth look at the AFC East.

A.J. Brown’s impact in Philadelphia was immediate and profound, developing into a vital piece of the Eagles’ run to two Super Bowl appearances, including a championship during his four seasons atop quarterback Jalen Hurts’ target hierarchy.

In New England, in Josh McDaniels’ system built around leveraging his top receiver into creating and exploiting mismatches all over the secondary and catching passes from Maye, Brown’s most explosive and impactful chapter may be about to be written.

Brown, so far in his career, averages a robust 5.2 Yards After the Catch per Reception, and as Pro Football Focus points out, McDaniels’ and Maye’s propensity for exploiting slant patterns as a key tenet of the Patriots offense could make this an ideal match given that his 125 receptions on slant patterns far and away pace the rest of the league.

Whether it is stretching the field on tight window throws, where Maye has already developed into one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the league, or turning quick slants into big gains, Brown may have just shattered whatever glass ceiling the Seahawks’ secondary built over the Patriots offense in the Super Bowl.

Josh Allen is the dynamite that powers the Buffalo Bills’ explosive offense, but Cook is the sledgehammer that doesn’t just soften up defenses to be exploited by the big plays in the vertical passing game but also the bulldozer who paves the way for the offense.

Cook is as punishing between the tackles, where year after year he is one of — if not the highest graded back on runs between the tackles by Pro Football Focus, as he is prolific when he gets loose running off the edge.

Last season, Cook obliterated his previous career-highs, while rushing for 1,621 yards and 12 touchdowns on his way to winning the running crown. But, Pro Football Focus points out that the 26-year-old also forced 62 missed tackles (third-most in the NFL), rattled off 39 explosive runs of 10 yards or more (second-most in the NFL), while averaging 5.2 yards per carry, including 3.16 Yards After Contact per Attempt (20th in the NFL).

Cook paced all running backs with a league-high nine games where he rushed for 100 yards or more, with the Bills finishing 8-1 in those contests, while limping to just a 4-4 record in games he failed to cross the century mark, underscoring his value to the entire operation.

There are few running backs more versatile at doling out punishment, who are also more foundational to how their offenses attack opposing defenses than Cook.

Christian Gonzalez is a rising star at a premium position in the NFL, and already one of the premier lockdown cornerbacks in the sport.

Gonzalez is well on his way to becoming a household name, if he wasn’t already, after flashing elite ball-skills on several plays in New England’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl, back in February.

At 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, Gonzalez is a long, rangy, and physical cornerback who thrives in man coverage, and shut down opposing quarterbacks who posted a pedestrian 64.4 passer rating when targeting him last season while limiting receivers to just 35 receptions in 480 total snaps in coverage.

Underscoring his ability to lock down opposing receivers, NFL Media pointed out that at a time last season, receivers averaged just two yards of separation, and trimmed 8.9 Expected Points Added by offenses throwing his way.

There might not be a more important defensive player to what the Patriots are building on that side of the ball than Gonzalez, and there may only be a few more gifted cornerbacks on any roster across the league.

Maye is riding a meteoric career trajectory that has leveraged a system built around his best attributes in an organization that seems hellbent on tailoring the roster to those skills that powered him into his first Super Bowl appearance and a second-place finish in the MVP voting in just his second season.

After putting together the kind of sophomore season that solidifies Maye’s reputation as one of the most accurate deep-ball passers and deadliest efficient pocket presences in the sport, the Patriots went out and traded for Brown in hopes of not just accelerating his trajectory as a quarterback but building an offense that can take the top off of secondaries with ease.

McDaniels’ influence was palpable last season, but Maye’s ability to pick apart opposing defenses was evident throughout a 2025 campaign that saw him pass for 4,394 yards with 31 touchdowns to eight interceptions.

Critics will point to the Patriots’ soft schedule last season as a launchpad both for New England’s dash to the Super Bowl and Maye’s ascension, but it was explosive plays on in a monsoon that derailed the Buccaneers in a game Tampa had to have in the throes of a playoff chase, a 380-yard Maye outburst in a game the Ravens absolutely needed, and a 294-yard take down of the Bengals that drove a stake through Cincinnati’s flickering playoff hopes.

In the Patriots’ most important games of the season, Maye rose to the occasion, before New England went out and bought the piece they hope will overcome the flaws the Seahawks exposed in the entire operation in the Super Bowl.

Few quarterbacks in the sport have amassed a resumè that rivals what Josh Allen has already accomplished.

An MVP award sits on Allen’s mantle, he’s been named an All-Pro twice, already, while powering the Bills to the postseason in five of his first six NFL seasons, compiling an 8-7 postseason record but passing for 3,915 yards with 29 touchdowns to six interceptions in those 15 contests.

Still, the Lombardi Trophy eludes Allen and generations of Buffalonians, but the 30-year-old has evolved over the past two seasons from ambitious gunslinger to lethal assassin from the pocket.

Allen’s dominance doesn’t just stem from his ability to pick defenses apart by making every throw on the route tree look nearly effortless, he’s also the most difficult quarterback in the league to contain. Pro Football Focus points out that Allen posted 444 scramble yards on the run, while rushing for 14 touchdowns in 2025, one shy of his previous career-high, set back in 2023.

Last season, Allen produced 23 Big Time Throws, while trimming his Turnover Worthy Plays to 14, stepping further from the shadow of the ‘gunslinger’ label that has followed him so closely to date in his career.

Far less reliant last season on “hero-ball” and significantly more patient and effective within the constructs of Joe Brady’s offense, it’s easy to see why Allen has produced 17 fourth-quarter comebacks and 25 game-winning drives in his career. As long as No. 17 is behind center, the Bills are never truly out of it, until there are four zeroes on the scoreboard.

There might not be a quarterback not named Patrick Mahomes that a franchise would trip over itself to build around, more than Allen, and that conversation may be getting closer today than ever before.