2014 NFL Recap: AFC South

My Preseason Predictions:
1.Indianapolis Colts (11-5)
2.Houston Texans (7-9)
3.Tennessee Titans (6-10)
4.Jacksonville Jaguars (3-13)

Actual Standings
1.Indianapolis Colts (11-5)
2.Houston Texans (9-7)
3.Jacksonville Jaguars (3-13)
4.Tennessee Titans (2-14)

Houston Texans: The 2014 Texans were able to recover pretty nicely from their disastrous 2013 season that ended in 14 straight losses. First-year head coach Bill O'Brien returned this team to their run-heavy, defensive-minded roots. Arian Foster once again bounced back nicely from injury and served as the centerpiece of this offense. How Foster is still able to play at such a high level after obtaining so many severe injuries over the years is astonishing. Veterans like Foster and Andre Johnson's impact on this offense is to be expected at this point, but they got some serious help this year from second-year wideout DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins was easily the most improved wideout in the NFL this season, showing off a big play flare and pretty reliable hands that made helped him surpass Johnson as the go-to-guy in the passing game. Of course, you can't talk about the Texans without gushing about J.J. Watt. No player in the NFL takes over a game like Watt. Even though he's facing double and sometimes triple coverage on just about every down, Watt still managed to dominate once again and ended up becoming the first player in NFL history to pick up two 20+ sack seasons in his career. This year he even added reps on offense and ended up scoring TD's on all three of his receptions on the season. If there wasn't a huge bias against players from non-playoff teams and defensive players winning MVP, I firmly believe Watt would walk away with that coveted honor this season. As expected, the Texans were hampered by subpar quarterback play. Four different guys lined up under center for the Texans this year and none of them looked to be a long-term solution at the position. Ryan Fitzpatrick was the longest tenured starter of the bunch and was his typical respectable but not overly productive self, Ryan Mallet was average in his first two career starts before going down with a season-ending pectoral injury, rookie Tom Savage didn't do much of anything in his cameo in Week 15 when Fitzpatrick broke his leg and Case Keenum managed to stop the bleeding at end of the season once literally every other quarterback on the roster went down with season-ending injuries. With Mallet entering free agency and the team possessing the 16th overall pick in April's draft, it should be interesting to see how the team approaches their quarterback situation heading into 2015. While the middling quarterback play was pretty much expected given their available personnel, the complete lack of impact from number one overall pick Jadeveon Clowney was not. The pairing of Clowney next to Watt was heavily hyped going into the season, but Clowney didn't really see the field much due to injury and when he was playing, he didn't fare well picking up just 7 tackles and 0 sacks in four games. After undergoing microfracture surgery on his knee in November, it's going to be a long, hard road back for Clowney. The Texans are trending in the right direction, but they're a still a year or two from returning to playoff form.

Indianapolis Colts: The Indianapolis Colts are a team that has been showing steady progress since Andrew Luck arrived in 2012 and that continued this season. Luck was sensational as he played easily the best football of his young career by throwing for a career-high 4,761 yards and 40 TD's- which is nearly double his total from each of the past two seasons. Luck is every bit of the franchise quarterback he was hyped up to be when he came out of Stanford, and I don't expect it to be much too much longer before he is hoisting up the Lombardi trophy. Growing right alongside Luck is third-year wide receiver T.Y. Hilton. With his blazing speed and phenomenal route-running abilites, Hilton has emerged as a legit number one wideout that Luck can count on in any situation. Hilton may not have the prestige of guys like A.J. Green, Julio Jones and Dez Bryant, but he can make just as many huge plays and spectacular catches as anyone in the league. If you look outside of the passing offense, there is still a lot of room to grow on this team. Their defense is certainly getting better thanks to solid play from veteran offseason acquisitions D'Qwell Jackson and Arthur Jones, and the continued dominance of highly underrated cornerback Vontae Davis, but they still aren't an overly scary unit. They don't get to the quarterback on a consistent basis, their run defense is very vulnerable and their secondary outside of Davis is above average at best. If they want to really contend in a conference that is owned by top-flight offenses in the Patriots and Broncos, they're going to need to build up a more stout defense that can be relied on to shut down those powerhouse offenses. The Colts can take solace in the fact their biggest problem for much of the season, the running game, seems to have finally been remedied with the late-season emergence of Daniel "Boom" Herron. Trent Richardson continued to be a let down once he was thrust into the starting role for the umpteenth time after Ahmad Bradshaw- who was in the midst of a great season- went down with a broken leg in mid-November. Richardson's continued struggles allowed Herron an opportunity to play and he delivered the goods. Herron showed promise as a powerful runner who also serves as a nice asset in the short passing game. If Herron can carry over his late-season momentum to 2015, The Colts' long-standing rushing woes will finally come to an end  The Colts are a very good football team that is inching closer and closer every year to achieving greatness.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Much like I could write a summary about the Patriots success in August, I could write one about the Jaguars failure around the same time. This is a squad that just can't really catch a break. No one expected them to be a good team this year, but they still managed to play below expectations for much of the season. The whole Toby Gerhart as a bellcow experiment backfired, their offensive line allowed rookie quarterback Blake Bortles to get massacred, and their defense once again trampled week after week. Any of their laundry list of flaws could be assessed at length, but perhaps the most pressing one is at quarterback. While Bortles wasn't as bad as his numbers (11 TD's, 17 INT's in 14 games, 13 of which he started) indicated, he never really looked comfortable under center. There was of course a variety of factors (offensive line play, lack of a running game, revolving door of receivers) that were out of his control that made his transition harder than it should've been, but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence when the guy you have pegged as your quarterback of the future is missing his targets and turning the ball over on a consistent basis. Bortles progress is going to be essential for this team's success moving forward so the Jags better hope he can develop the mechanics and decision making abilities to match his exceptional athleticism and arm strength. Despite finishing another season  well below .500, there are a few things that inspire some confidence for the future of the Jaguars. Their trio of rookie wideouts (Allen Robinson, Marqise Lee, Allen Hurns) all produced at various points of the season. Robinson looked especially good as a possession receiver before he went down with a broken foot in Week 11. If Justin Blackmon can return from his suspension and remain out of trouble, Bortles could have a pretty lethal young group of wide receivers to help him progress over the next few years. Despite having a pretty weak defense overall, the Jaguars had no trouble getting to the quarterback in 2014. The Jaguars were tied with the Jets for the sixth most sacks in the league, finishing with 45 on the year. Defensive tackle Sen'Derrick Marks has quietly become one of the best interior pass-rushers in the NFL and the Jaguars have gotten huge production of rotational pass-rushing specialists defensive ends Chris Clemons and Ryan Davis. The Jaguars are a pretty young team with some intriguing up-and-coming talent, but they still needs some serious development before they get of the NFL's basement.

Tennessee Titans: They might not have the number one overall pick, but for my money, there was no team in the NFL worse than the Tennessee Titans this season. Unlike the Buccaneers and Jaguars-who were in a lot of the games they lost-the Titans weren't even competitive in a majority of their 14 losses, especially in the last month of the season. The answer to why the Titans were so bad in 2014 is simple: they lack adequate talent on both sides of the ball. There's a few standout players on the roster including tight end Delanie Walker, wide receiver Kendall Wright, defensive tackle Jurrell Casey and cornerback Jason McCourty, but other than them, this roster is pretty much made up of journeyman veterans who've seen much better days and young players who just haven't lived up to their potential. It's a toss up as to which side of the ball has more deficiencies, but if I had to chose, it would be the offense. The quarterback carousel that took place in this organization this year is about as disastrous as you can get in the NFL. Jake Locker ended his tenure in Tennessee just like he started it: By getting injured and missing most of the season. Locker's replacements didn't fare much better. Rookie Zach Mettenberger flashed his big arm and not much else in his six starts, and journeyman Charlie "Clipboard Jesus" Whitehurst did a job of protecting the ball, but still couldn't make a whole of lot plays. It would certainly be a pretty big shock if the Titans didn't draft a quarterback at some point in this year's draft. Failing to pull their weight with the constant state of flux at quarterback was the running back tandem of Shonn Greene and rookie Bishop Sankey. Greene has shown pretty much none of the power or vision he showed he showed with the Jets since he arrived in Nashville and Sankey failed to live up to the shifty, two-way, every-down back title he was given before and after the 2014 draft. Their issues on defense are no where near as wide spread, as they are mostly confined to the front seven. They just don't have anyone on that roster that can consistently stop the run and it showed all year long. Only the Browns allowed more rushing yards than them this season, and given all the missed tackles/assignments they had defending the run, I'm surprised they weren't dead last. The Titans are arguably the most talent-barren team in the NFL and are going to need a flawless draft and free agency period to turn the ship around next season.         

Tennessee Titans: