My Preseason Predictions
1.Houston Texans (11-5)
2.Indianapolis Colts (9-7)
3.Tennessee Titans (7-9)
4.Jacksonville Jaguars (2-14)
Actual Standings
1.Indianapolis Colts (11-5)
2.Tennessee Titans (7-9)
3.Jacksonville Jaguars (4-12)
4.Houston Texans (2-14)
Houston Texans: I expected the Texans to be a bit of a disappointment this year, but I didn't expect a full-on collapse. The Texans somehow managed to lose the last 14 games after starting out 2-0. Like the Lions last year, the team is far more talented than their record indicates. Andre Johnson still put 1,400 yards, J.J Watt put up another All-Pro year and the passing defense became a top 5 unit thanks to excellent seasons by Jonathan Joesph and Kareem Jackson. The team just couldn't get any traction at all thanks to poor quarterback play and injuries galore on both sides of the ball. The quarterback position was a problem the entire season. Matt Schaub began the year as the starter and has never looked worse in his entire career. He wasn't getting Johnson involved in the offense enough, he look stilted in the pocket and most importantly, he was forcing passes and defenses were taking advantages of these mistakes (4 of his 14 INT's were returned for touchdowns.) When Schaub went down with an injury and T.J Yates was terrible in relief, third-stringer Case Keenum got his chance to play. At first, Keenum was sharp and looked to be the quarterback of the future for the Texans as he threw 7 touchdowns and zero INT's in his first 3 starts. In his preceding 5 starts, Keenum regressed and followed the trend of poor quarterback play putting up 2 touchdowns and 6 INT's over that stretch. Keenum's poor play and a thumb injury, gave Schaub an opportunity to start again (a.k.a close out the season in the same disastrous fashion that it started in) further confirming that neither Scahub or Keenum should be starting in the NFL at this point in time. Making the untrustworthy quarterback play even worse, was the amount of injuries on both sides of the ball. Oft-injured running back Arian Foster finally got a severe enough injury to knock him out for the year after playing hurt the past few seasons, inside linebacker and defensive leader Brian Cushing went down midway through the year for a second straight season and tight end Owen Daniels took away the only other proven, consistent option the Texans have in the passing game besides Johnson. I honestly feel bad that Gary Kubiak was the scapegoat for this season full of terrible quarterback play and bad luck. Kubiak turned this team around from nothing and made them a playoff team and he gets fired for one bad, injury-riddled season? The NFL works in funny ways this time and Kubiak was a victim of the incredible impatience with losing the league has, even with recent success. The Texans have a roster with a lot of talent and if they can find some stability at the quarterback position via the draft, trade or free agency, they'll make a quick recovery and return to playoff form.
Indianapolis Colts: The Colts were about as schizophrenic as a team can get while still being successful. Early in the year, they were absolutely dominant knocking out the 49ers, Seahawks and Broncos in a five-week span Once Reggie Wayne went down against the Broncos, the team went through some growing pains on both sides of the ball that were most evident when they suffered two embarrassing blowout losses at the hands of the Cardinals and Rams. Then the Colts re-found their footing the last few weeks of the year with strong performances against the Chiefs, Texans and Jaguars. Amidst all the calamity the Colts had there were two constants that held them together: Andrew Luck and Robert Mathis. Luck showed no signs of a sophomore slump as he cut way down on his INT total from his rookie year, greatly improved his accuracy and showed even more flashes of why he was pegged as an electric, franchise quarterback coming out of Stanford in 2012. Mathis, the long time pass-rushing menace, had the best year of his career at age 32. Mathis was the glue that held this defense together with 19.5 sacks and 8 forced fumbles and is absolutely deserving of Defensive Player of the Year for 2013. While Luck and Mathis were the leaders, there were plenty of unsung heroes that helped the Colts win games. T.Y. Hilton stepped up majorly in relief of Wayne and showed that he will be the leader of the receiving corps once Wayne retires and running back Donald Brown made the most of his carries in a year where the Colts desperately needed a back after Vick Ballard and Ahmad Bradshaw went down for the season and newly-acquired Trent Richardson could not get anything going. Defensively, Jerell Freeman continues to impress in his second NFL season and gives the Colts a great two-way linebacker that can make plays from sideline-to-sideline. The Colts are a team on the rise and as Luck continues to grow, this team should become a stronger title contender (if they can become more consistent on both sides of the ball.)
Jacksonville Jaguars: To the surprise of no one, the Jaguars were a complete non-factor in 2013. This team just has far too many flaws all over the field to get anything going. Their issues start at the quarterback position. Blaine Gabbert finally got benched once and for all this season and will never start in the league again unless some kind of a miracle happens. Chad Henne is a solid guy to have in the reserves, but is certainly not talented enough to lead the team. Gabbert and Henne didn't even have the support of a running game this year as Maurice Jones-Drew struggled all season long and has appeared to lost a majority of his explosiveness after his Lisfranc injury in 2012. Jones-Drew should be expendable to the team in his contract year and the Jaguars really should've traded him a couple of years ago when he still had value. The biggest disappointment for the Jaguars this year was wide receiver Justin Blackmon. Blackmon was suspended for the first 4 games of 2013 then came back in dominant form before failing another drug test and getting suspended for the remainder of the season. Blackmon is an incredible talent when he is on-the-field, but the Jaguars can't continue to deal with his stupidity off of it, even with all the playmaking ability he has. As expected, the defense also was terrible. There's just really not that much talent in any aspect of the defense and they are going to need a major overhaul to get any results on that side of the ball. Inside linebacker Paul Poslunzy is one of the most underrated linebackers in the league who had a career year in 2013 and safety Jonathan Cyprien had quietly productive rookie year, but they are going to need some quality corners, a run-stopper and most importantly, some semblance of a pass-rush to turn things around defensively. Coach Gus Bradley is a great presence who is the epitome of a player's coach and an owner in Shad Khan has money to spend. Now the team needs to make some moves to put together a roster that can compete and end this current misery stage the Jaguars are going through.
Tennessee Titans: The Titans ended up being a respectable football team this year, but it wasn't for the reasons that they were expected to be. With a rebooted offensive line, I expected Chris Johnson to have a huge bounceback season and that didn't really happen. Johnson was solid and did far better than he was given credit for, but he certainly didn't return to his dominant form of old with better blockers in front of him. Johnson's future with the team looks murky due to the money he's owed and his consistent displeasure with how he's being used in the offense. If they decide to let him go, the Titans do have depth at the position with Shonn Greene and Jackie Battle, both of whom have starting experience in the league so it wouldn't be the biggest blow to this team. The Titans also did not get the season they had hoped for from Kenny Britt. The troubled wide receiver didn't even appear to put any effort in during a contract-year and the Titans will gladly let him move on. Where the 2013 Titans succeeded came as a surprise to everyone. Their secondary suddenly emerged as one of the better units in the league. Altraun Verner was one of the biggest lockdown corners in the league this season and played his way to a big contract this offseason, whether it be with the Titans or someone else. Elsewhere in the secondary, safety Bernard Pollard continued his role as a strong enforcer with his new squad by leading the team in tackles and cornerback Jason McCourty had another solid year in the shadow of Verner's newfound dominance. Defensive tackle Jurrell Casey also came out of nowhere to become one of the top interior pass-rushers in the league, picking up 10.5 sacks on the season. On a front seven that had its fair share of problems all season with getting to the quarterback and stopping the run, Casey was the exception with his impressive play throughout the year. Offensively, the team benefited greatly from the emergence of second-year wideout Kendall Wright. With Johnson and a lot of his fellow receivers being so erratic, Wright earned trust in the offense with his consistent play and his ability to keep drives alive with his great hands, which made up for his inability to get in the endzone. Wright has proved to be well worth his high-draft pick in 2012 and if he can start scoring next year, he could be a top-flight receiver in the league in no time at all. The biggest problem for the Titans moving forward is a lack of patience that threatens to ruin this potential-filled team's future. They unjustly fired coach Mike Munchak after the season was over. Munchak was just starting to getting onto something with this roster and he gets fired before he has the opportunity to build off the progress that the team made this season. It also doesn't help that the team is already thinking about pulling the plug on quarterback Jake Locker. Locker was playing the best football of his career before he went down for the year with a Lisfranc injury. Locker is still young and despite all his injuries, has shown more than enough potential to warrant a starting position on this team. The Titans have bigger holes to fill than quarterback and shouldn't be wasting draft picks or cap space by picking up a quarterback at this moment in time when you have like Locker already on the roster. Whoever inherits the Titans could take them places, but with the higher-ups making so many brash decisions and the amount of question marks from receiver depth to their defensive front to who is going to start at quarterback next season, the Titans could be stuck in the bowels of mediocrity for quite some time.
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