Who will win the AFC South
In recent years the AFC south has been one for mediocrity and horrible Thursday night games. However, since 2019, when the Tennessee Titans made it all the way to the AFC Championship game after they upset the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens, the South has received some due respect which the division deserves. Last year the Tennessee Titans won the south after a tight battle with the Indianapolis Colts, as they both finished with a record of 11-5, however, the Titans finished with a better division record. Will the Tennessee Titans be able to repeat as division winners or will another team dethrone the champion? Let’s see.
In 2019 the Tennessee Titans came second in the division, with a record of 9-7, but went on to make a miracle run to the championship game in the AFC. Last season, the Titans finished with an 11-5 record and won the division over the Colts, but unfortunately lost in the wild card round to the Baltimore Ravens. Last season the Titans had one of their best years in recent history, even though they finished the year without a playoff win. Last season the Titans’ running back, Derrick Henry joined an exclusive group, a group that can say theyve rushed for more than 2,000 yards in a season in the NFL. The Titans have their big three on offense, consisting of Ryan Tannehill, AJ Brown and Derrick Henry. This is undebatably one of the best trio in the league, however, it doesn’t mean instant success. The Titans struggled last year mainly due to their defense, or rather lack which. This offseason, the Titans have worked to improve their defense, mainly by adding names like Denico Autry and Bud Dupree. This offseason the Titans also saw two of their main pass catchers leave Nashville and head up north, as Corey Davis signed with the Jets and Jonnu Smith signed with the Patriots. Will the Titans be able to recover from the loss of their important players this offseason through the draft, and will their defense improve from a league worst from last year to a league better?
The Indianapolis Colts finished second in the AFC South last year, as we’ve said. Last year the Colts went through a one year push to the playoffs, as they signed Phillip Rivers to be their quarterback. This year though, as Phillip Rivers retired, they will be putting all of their trust into Carson Wentz to be their leader. Carson Wentz will be coming from an Eagles team that lost hope in him midway through the season last year, and will be reuniting with Frank Reich, his offensive coordinator from when he finished third in MVP voting. Will Carson Wentz and the Colts be able to turn their engines on and win the division?
The Houston Texans came third last season, as they struggled throughout the year, finishing with a 4-12 record. midway through the season, the Texans fired their head coach, Bill O’Brien, a move that should have come years prior. Despite their record, they also don’t have a first round pick this year, as they traded it to the Dolphins to be able to acquire Laremy Tunsil, a pick that is now held by San Francisco. The Texans also have more issues going on too, as their franchise quarterback, Deshaun Watson, has demanded a trade at the beginning of the offseason and has stated that he will hold out of the season if he weren’t traded. Additionally, more than 20 allegations of sexual assault has been brought upon Watson, making it less and less likely that he will be on the field in 2021. The other quarterbacks Houston currently has in house are Tyrod Taylor and Ryan Finley. Along with these other signings, theyve also added lots of talent, including names like Mark Ingram, Phillip Lindsey and Desmond King. Whoever lines up under center for the Houston Texans will obviously be leading a broken franchise to a top three selection in the 2022 draft. In summary, it’s safe to assume that the Texans wont do well next season.
The Jacksonville Jaguars came last in the division last season, with a record of 1-15, and they currently hold the first overall pick. This selection is likely going to turn into Trevor Lawrence, as he will lead this completely new team hopefully to success in 2021 and beyond. The Jaguars have almost completely cleaned house and along with their team on the field, the front office now looks completely different as well, consisting of Urban Meyer, successful college head coach, as the new head coach of the Jags. Along with adding Urban as their head coach the Jaguars also added lots of free agents, as they entered the offseason as one of the teams with the most to spend. Some of these names include, Phillip Dorset, Carlos Hyde, Shaq Griffin, Marvin Jones as well as trading for Malcolm Brown from the Saints. Will the new look Jaguars be able to make moves in the division next season and earn some success? Let’s look.
To begin our predictions we’ll take the Houston Texans as our division loser. The reason for this comes down to how much of a dumpster fire the organization currently is, the team hired a losing coordinator as their head coach, their franchise quarterback desperately wants out, they have almost none of their receiving corps from two years ago, JJ Watt is gone and theyve spent money where they dont need to, on their running back room for example. For third, we’ll take the Tennessee Titans to finish here. The Titans have a rocket offense, but we don’t think they’ll be able to compete with the other two teams in the division. The Titans simply have lost too much talent through free agency and they simply don’t have enough money to replace them. For second we will take the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars have done so well this offseason to improve, from hiring Urban Meyer as their head coach, to building an offense around a quarterback they have yet to draft, they will prove to be much improved from what they did last season. To win the division we will take the Colts. We think the Carson Wentz gamble will hit and the Colts will go on a tear, they haven’t made many moves in free agency but they didn’t necessarily need to. If the Colts got to 11-5 with Phillip Rivers, an MVP caliber Carson Wentz will do so much more for that team.