AFC Sud overview, forecasts and projected records

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Football’s weirdest division has spent the last few months getting even stranger. The Texans traded their unnamed best player Deshaun Watson in the second second chord of the offseason. The Titans pulled out of the Tom Brady contest to focus on building an attack around Derrick Henry and Ryan tannehill. The Colts handed the reins of their young attack to a 38-year-old who had just had a bad season. And the once-promising Jaguars have gone from chasing a playoff berth to positioning themselves for the No.1 pick in the 2021 draft.

Each team, in a way, seems to be reeling from the disappointment. Houston not only burned out a 24-point playoff lead for the Chiefs, but also a chance to host the AFC Championship game. Tennessee, after knocking down the much-favored Ravens, fell in Kansas City a week later, allowing the coach Mike Vrabel to bypass any discussion of parting a body part. (Go ahead, watch.) In Jacksonville, any sense of optimism that remained after a superb run in the 2017 AFC title game has evaporated with so many top players heading for the exits. CB Jalen Ramsey forced a trade midway through last season, DE Yannick Ngakoue is trying to do the same this year, and CB AJ Bouye has been traded to Denver this offseason.

It’s crazy to consider this division a few games away from having its top two teams go head to head for the AFC title. And yet, none of them except Indianapolis felt the need to improve significantly. Is anyone seriously putting an AFC South team to make the Super Bowl ahead of the Chiefs, Patriots, Ravens, or Steelers? Sure, Tennessee signed Tannehill for a four-year, $ 118 million extension this offseason, but the idea of him at the helm – no matter how effective he was historically in the 12 regular-season games he started in 2019 – thrills opponents. thorns? Does an attack led by Watson inspire the same fear when he no longer has DeAndre Hopkins and his insane capture radius to target?

The Colts are the most compelling team in the division this year. While they have all the fundamentals to make a serious playoff push, signing Philip rivers, after 16 seasons with the Chargers, could be either spectacularly good or hopelessly awful. Frank Reich is one of football’s best and most adaptable coaches, and spent three years with Rivers in San Diego from 2013 to 2015. But can football’s intelligence and a shared history of success prevent Rivers from declining ? In an era when mobility has become a central part of quarterbacking and modern program development, Rivers is one of the league’s latest setbacks. He’s just had his worst season ever, with 20 interceptions and just 23 touchdowns. But he’s also only a year away from making his top three passers in the NFL, and at this point he’s seen and diagnosed nearly every ploy from every defensive coordinator in football.

You can see what the Colts were thinking when they signed him. Imagine if Rivers regains his form not so long ago when he was paired with the budding talent in Indianapolis? Then the strangest division in football can surprise anyone.

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INDIANAPOLIS POULONS
PROJECTED RECORDING: 10-6
BEST CASE OF SCENARIO: Rivers shows off his old spark and behaves like a wise game manager, finding young WRs Michael Pittman Jr. and Parris campbell and giving the Colts a 2018 Eagles vibe, minus the mobility of the quarterback. Marlon mack and second-round rookie Jonathan taylor of Wisconsin is becoming one of the best running back tandems in the NFL.
WORST SCENARIO: Rivers is proving to be in the kind of decline a good ploy can’t reverse, and offense remains a neutral threat at best as some top-notch talent is wasted. Investing in DT DeForest Buckner little harvest. Indianapolis returns with regret in the spring of 2020, when so many other younger QBs were on the market.

TITANS TENNESSEE
PROJECTED RECORDING: 9-7
BEST CASE OF SCENARIO: Offensive coordinator Arthur smith worked wonders once again. Wide receiver AJ Brown remains scorching, as Henry continues to punish opponents and Tannehill builds on his breakout season, earning every dollar of his new contract. Smith is on the wishlist of every team in need of a coach.
WORST SCENARIO: The toll of last year’s heavy workload shows Henry, whose woefully scheduled outage comes after the Titans gave him a four-year, $ 50 million contract extension with $ 25.5 million guaranteed in July. To kick off their racing game, the Titans turn to round three Darrynton Evans (State of Appalachia), who is not ready for a lead role.

TEXANS HOUSTON
PROJECTED RECORDING: 7-9
BEST CASE OF SCENARIO: Hopkins’ trade, like the 2019 Jadeveon Clowney deal, is not turning out to be as dire as critics thought; the combination of Will fuller plus newly acquired WR Brandin cooks and Randall Cobb keeps the game passing by clicking. RB David johnson, recovered from the Cardinals as part of the Hopkins deal, returns to its 2016 All-Pro form.
WORST SCENARIO: As Hopkins thrives in Arizona, the Texans stumble and Watson becomes unhappy. It doesn’t help that the young players on the offensive line aren’t showing the necessary development. Internal divisions are growing in Houston. The disappointing finish does not sink the coach Bill o’brien, but as GM he needs to make fixes – quickly.

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