Houston Texans: The Texans had another nice run last season driven by their booming offense and their fast defense anchored by the freakish J.J. Watt and his 20.5 sack season. Despite their dominance at times, they played poorly in the latter stage of the season and got bounced very easily by the Patriots in the divisional round of the playoffs. The 2013 Texans have pretty much the same roster in place and are very much in the hunt to make a run at a title again this year. The biggest plus for the Texans this year is the return of inside linebacker Brian Cushing. Cushing missed the last 11 games of the season after tearing his ACL against the Jets in Week 6. When Cushing went down, the defensive play got a lot more sketchy and this talented unit will benefit big time from having their captain back on the field. Adding to the leadership on defense is the addition of future hall-of-fame safety Ed Reed. Reed has clearly lost a step on the field, but his experience and intelligence should help this average Texans secondary become better immediately . On the other side of the ball, the Texans finally added to their receiving arsenal when they used their first-round pick on wideout DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins is the most polished receiver of this rookie class at the moment and has impressed mightily so far with his sure hands and route-running ability. The fact that he gets to work with a proven elite receiver in Andre Johnson should also do wonders for his game. If I was gambling man, I would say Hopkins will be the most impactful rookie receiver this season (Yes I like him even more than Tavon Austin.) The Texans didn't really do much else this offseason, which is both a good and bad thing. This team has clearly has established themselves as a very good football team and the continuity on the roster is always a good thing for team chemistry, but they haven't done much to push themselves to the next level. They are going to have to play consistent football throughout the year and not solely rely on Arian Foster and Andre Johnson to win them games. The Texans are an undoubtedly talented football team with elite players on both sides of the ball that should return to the playoffs yet again this year, they just need to play at a consistently high-level and not stumble in the clutch if they want to compete for a championship.
Indianapolis Colts: It can't be disputed that the best and most surprising story of the 2012 season was the Indianapolis Colts. The team dealt with extreme adversity with head coach Chuck Pagano missing a majority of the season after being diagnosed with leukemia and beats all odds and made the playoffs with a young, unproven roster and an interim head coach in Bruce Arians at the helm. With Pagano back in the building and another year of experience for this team, the Colts could be right back in the thick of things this year. Second-year quarterback Andrew Luck should improve vastly from his 18-INT season a year ago. Save for his turnovers, Luck played quite well last year throwing for 4,000+ yards and the combination of more experience and his college coordinator Pep Hamilton joining him him in Indy all but assure Luck will be much improved this season. Hamilton's presence should also ease a lot of the issues of Bruce Arians leaving and Luck's familiarity with Hamilton's offense assures a smooth transition for him this season. Further helping out the Colts offense is the addition of running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who is pretty consistent despite a lingering foot injury and could thrive as the feature back in Hamilton's rush-heavy offense. The Colts also bolstered their receiving corps by picking up speedster Darius Heyward-Bey to add to their legion of promising young receivers. Heyward-Bey admittedly isn't the most polished or sure-handed receiver, but he's got top-flight speed and if paired with T.Y. Hilton or LaVon Brazill, could create a lot of matchup problems with the sheer amount of quickness on the field. No one is doubting the Colts talent or depth on offense, their problems are pretty much solely on defense. Their defense is just below-average on the whole. Sure Jerrell Freeman is an emerging inside linebacker and Vontae Davis is a solid corner, but the rest of the defense lacks high levels of talent or is just too old to produce consistently (Robert Mathis is not even close to the scary pass-rusher he once was.) Time will tell if free-agent pickups LaRon Landry, Ricky-Jean Francois and rookie defensive end Bjoern Werner work out, but none of these guys are sure things in helping to improve this defense and they very well could be bound for mediocrity again. The Colts have a lot of promise on offense with a boatload of emerging young talent, but the amount of question marks and non-factors on defense will keep them from going far in the playoffs.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Ahhh what to say about the Jacksonville Jaguars? There really isn't anything going right for this team at the moment. Second-year wideout Justin Blackmon is suspended for the first four game of the year for getting a DUI in the offseason and his character problems are far outshining his play on the field, star running back Maurice Jones-Drew is coming back from a Lisfranc injury and they still don't have a reliable quarterback or defense that can stop anyone. When the one star player you have (Jones-Drew) is a complete question mark after returning from a major injury, you know you're are in trouble and if even if he bounces back seamlessly, the team doesn't have the talent around him to do anything and given that he is in a contract year, this could be the last of Jones-Drew we see in Jacksonville. The lone bright spots for the team is new coach Gus Bradley seems to very enthusiastic about the team and his motivation and smarts could incite a spark on this not-so-talented roster and a strong draft class that includes highly-touted tackle Luke Jockel, ballhawk safety John Cyprien and the incredibly versatile offensive weapon Denard Robinson, who can lineup everywhere from quarterback to wide receiver. These rookies are a bit of a bright light on a team that is clouded in darkness (and by darkness I mean a ton of recent draft busts and holes at pretty much every position on the field save for wide receiver and offensive line.) Unless a miracle happens in Jacksonville, the only thing the Jaguars will be playing for this year is a chance to get Jadevon Clowney in next year's draft (and with their so bad it's almost impressive honor of having three consecutive seasons finishing with the fewest sacks in the league, they better hope he falls to them.)
Tennessee Titans: After a few years of being near the bottom of the league, the Titans quietly made a lot of key additions to bolster their roster this offseason. They addressed their biggest issue on the interior line by signing the elite Andy Levitre and using their first-round pick on top-prospect Chance Warmack to be their new starting guards. If you watched the Titans last season you know that Chris Johnson or any other running back on the roster could not run up the middle due to lack of holes and were forced to run outside because they had no other option, Levitre and Warmack should fix that problem immediately and Johnson and the rest of the Titans backs should benefit greatly from it. Further helping Johnson's cause is the addition of Shonn Greene. Greene is coming off a 1,000 yard season with the Jets and will help Johnson get the rest a small, explosive back needs to be in top-form. Greene is a bruiser and if he plays like he did last season, he and Johnson could be one of the top running back tandems in the league. On the other side of the ball, the Titans made a bold move by picking up a pair of veteran safeties in George Wilson and Bernard Pollard. Wilson and Pollard bring experience and consistent production (not to mention hard-hits) to a relatively young unit that is still a work in progress. The Titans may have made a lot of nice moves this offseason to improve their team, but they are going to need to have some players at key positions improve if they want become competitive. Third-year quarterback Jake Locker has been relatively unimpressive in his career thus far. While his play has never been completely awful, he's only rarely shown that he can be anything more than a competent ball-control quarterback. He's going to need to be that reliable, franchise guy they drafted him to be or the Titans are going to be stuck in the bowels of mediocrity as long he is starting. In Locker's defense his subpar performance can be somewhat attributed to the his middling reciveing corps, which remains a question mark going into this year. Top-wideout Kenny Britt has all the talent in the world, but is oft-injured and gets in constant legal trouble off-the-field. Second-year wideout Kendall Wright has potential, but didn't have that strong of a rookie year. Nate Washington is reliable, but isn't talented enough to anchor a receiving corps on his own. New pickups Kevin Walter, Delanie Walker and Justin Hunter are shaky for different reasons: Walter is getting old and his production has declined substantially over the past few seasons, Walker has never been the sole starting tight end so his flashes of brilliance with the 49ers might not translate to the Titans and Hunter, who the Titans traded up for in the draft, has been nothing short of awful in training camp and the preseason thus far. The receiving unit isn't completely hopeless, but they are going to have to play better than they have in recent years. Their defense is also not particularly impressive. The pickups of Wilson and Pollard are great for the secondary and should help improve their horrible pass defense from a year ago, but they really didn't do anything to address their woes in the front 7. Aside from Kamerion Wimbley and Akeem Ayers, no on the front 7 is consistently productive and they got burned frequently season (their rushing defense was 22nd in the league.) Admitted they're a young unit, but that still doesn't excuse their poor all-around play and amount of blown assignments/missed tackles. The Titans made some smart moves this offseason and have put themselves in better position to win games, but they are going to need to be much better on both sides of the ball if they want to turn their fortunes around and bring a winning team back to Nashville.
Projected standings for the AFC South:
1.Houston Texans (11-5)
2.Indianapolis Colts (9-7)
3.Tennessee Titans (7-9)
4.Jacksonville Jaguars (2-14)
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