NFL
By: Greg Rector
AFC SOUTH
The AFC South sees the Houston Texans looking to regain credibility, the Indianapolis Colts are searching for a new regime to take them places and the Tennessee Titans are looking to remain the top dogs in the division but must deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Let’s look at how I see the AFC South division shaping up for the 2023 NFL season.
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars have succeeded with quarterback Trevor Lawrence adding Calvin Ridley to the wide receiver group and signing Zay Jones from the Raiders and Christian Kirk from the Cardinals. Travis Ettienne was vastly better in his second season as well and they drafted Tank Bigsby out of Auburn in the draft.
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) July 31, 2023
With Lawrence having better receiving talent this season they should be a much better offense. The AFC South will be a whole lot harder for the opposing defenses.
The Jaguars defense is led by Josh Allen and the OLB will be feasting on opposing quarterbacks. The secondary added Rayshawn Jenkins from the Rams as the strong safety and they added Corner Darious Williams from the Chargers. They are a young group who showed plenty of promise last season and will be hungry to prove themselves.
Tennessee Titans
The Titans have owned the AFC South for the two seasons prior to the Jaguars taking the division title last season. What could go wrong did go wrong for the Titans last season? Ryan Tannehill is the veteran quarterback but he will be challenged by second-year quarterback Malik Willis and the most recent draft pick Will Levis out of Kentucky. Willis was very limited in his abilities as a rookie when he was forced to play last season. Training camp news has him playing much better.
Everything that happened on a jam-packed day at #Titans camp on Tuesday.
READ https://t.co/WYXMVYkQXI pic.twitter.com/PbGzarr0qA
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) August 1, 2023
The offensive line got help when they drafted jack-of-all-trades Peter Skoronski from Northwestern who can play all five spots on the line and will be the new left guard. The Titans also signed Daniel Brunskill from the Niners as their new right tackle and also signed Andre Dillard to be their new left guard.
The receiving corps was boosted when the Titans signed De’Andre Hopkins formerly of the Cardinals. He should be a huge help to Treylon Burks.
The Tennessee Titans defense signed three free agents DE Denico Autry comes over from the Colts and they also signed Azeez Al-Shaiir from the Niners to play at one of the outside linebacker spots. In the secondary, they signed Sean Murphy-Bunting from Tampa Bay. This will be a tough group of defenders.
Indianapolis Colts
Well. Jim Irsay is at it again. He’s locked into a dispute with the Colts’ running back Jonathan Taylor and it could get ugly. The Indianapolis Colts went out and drafted Anthony Richardson the rookie quarterback from Florida with just 13 starts as a quarterback he seems to be the number one guy for the Colts.
1.) Never had a back pain.
2.) Never reported back pain.
Not sure who “sources” are, but find new ones 🤔
— Jonathan Taylor (@JayT23) July 31, 2023
The Colts need to fix the situation with their best offensive player. If not new head Shane Steichen will have a hard time getting the team to improve. They won’t be challenging for the AFC South title this season.
The Indianapolis Colt’s defense added DT Deforest Buckner and DE Samson Ebukan from the San Francisco 49ers but their secondary is going through a major change with JuJu Brents taking over as the one corner position while Jaylen Jones and Darius Rush are both backing up at the corner position.
Houston Texans
New head coach Demeco Ryans has his hands full to get the Texans back into the playoff hunt. The Texans drafted quarterback CJ Stroud from Ohio State and Edge rusher Will Anderson Jr out of the Georgia Bulldogs for the defense in the first round of the past draft.
We wanna be like Will when we grow up pic.twitter.com/hkOnCo5w9Q
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) August 1, 2023
Both young players will need to learn their jobs and it won’t be an easy task, especially against their divisional rivals in the AFC South. The rest of the Texans’ offense is led by Dameon Pierce the running back will return for his second season but has Devin Singeltary ex of the Bills as his backup in the running back room.
Stroud will have veterans at tight end in Dalton Schultz from the in-state rival Cowboys and the Texans also signed wide receiver Robert Woods away from the division rival Titans.
The defense added Denzel Perryman from the Raiders and yet another former 49ers player in SS Jimmie Ward. They played decently last season but this team needs plenty of work before they are again challengers for the AFC South division title holders.
My order of Finish
I have the Jacksonville Jaguars going 10-7 and they win the AFC South. The Titans are up next at 8-9 while the Colts will be a 5-12 squad and the Houston Texans should be tied with the Colts. The Jaguars will be the only playoff team.
