The AFC/AFL East has been around since 1960. Since that time, the Patriots (21) and Dolphins (14) have won the majority of division titles, while the Jets are behind one team no longer in the division and one team that hasn’t been in the division since the merger.

The graph below shows the winner of the AFC/AFL East in each year of existence.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Hall of Fame quarterbacks have tended to dominate this division, which has seen long runs of success.

It began, well, in the beginning. From 1960 to 1962, the Houston Oilers and George Blanda won the division. Babe Parilli and the Patriots took it in 1963, followed by a run of the defensive-powered Bills and Jack Kemp from 1964 to 1966. In 1967, the Oilers had the top defense in the AFL and won the division behind Pete Beathard, before the stud QB run began again in the division.

In 1968 and 1969, the Jets and Joe Namath won the AFL East. In 1970, in the post-merger AFC East, Johnny Unitas led the Colts to the title. From 1971 to 1974, Miami won the division each year, with Bob Griese the starter each year but Earl Morrall taking on the brunt of the duties in ’72. Then, All-Pro QB Bert Jones took over as the face of the division, leading the Colts to three straight titles from ’75 to ’77.

After that 10-year run of star quarterbacks, the division went through a short period without a dominant quarterback. Steve Grogan, who was a good quarterback in his prime, led the Patriots to the division title in ’78 behind the best rushing game in history. In 1979, Bob Griese and Miami had one last hurrah, Joe Ferguson and the Bills won it in 1980, and then the defensive-powered Dolphins won the AFC East in 1981 and 1982 with David Woodley at quarterback.

That was part of a 5-year run as division kings for Miami, but it’s worth pausing to recognize that from 1983 to 1985, it was Dan Marino leading the way in South Beach. The Patriots and Tony Eason had a surprising year in 1986 to win the division, before Jack Trudeau and the league’s best defense led Indianapolis to an AFC East crown during the strike-shortened (and replacement-player filled) 1987 season.

That’s when the next Hall of Fame quarterback run took over. Jim Kelly and the Bills won 6 titles in 8 years from 1988 to 1995, with Marino’s Dolphins stealing the crown back in ’92 and ’94. The Bill Parcells years were just starting, as New England won the division behind Drew Bledsoe in ’96 and ’97, and then the Jets won their first AFC East crown in 1998 with Vinny Testaverde.

In ’99, Peyton Manning helped the Colts to their last AFC East title, and in 2000, Miami won a competitive AFC East behind a great defense and Jay Fiedler.

Fiedler remains one of the last three men to quarterback a team to an AFC East title. That’s because the Tom Brady run begins here. From 2001 to 2018, Brady and the Patriots have won 16 of 18 AFC East titles. The two exceptions were both at the arm of Chad Pennington, with the Jets in 2002 and the Dolphins in 2008.  In both of those seasons, he led the NFL in completion percentage.

Brady has 16 of those crowns, of course, but Brady/Kelly/Marino/Griese/Blanda/Namath/Unitas/Manning have been the man behind 38 of the 59 division titles in AFC/AFL East history.