One good, two bad and one average team— that was the AFC South in 2014. Will 2015 be any different?
Tennessee Titans
With the second pick of the 2015 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans selected “Marcus Mare-ee-OH-toe!” That is, according to the commissioner of our NFL.
It seems as though the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner’s NFL career has gotten off to a slightly inauspicious start. But all indications from camp suggest Marcus MARIOTA has all the requisite tools to be a dynamite NFL quarterback. As once stated on The Preseason Podcast of the Year, Mariota appears to have all the tangible skills. But are the intangibles there? Do you see the fire from that kid? The, please forgive me, swagger necessary to do this job at a high level? Mariota had better hope Martellus Bennett was right about us as fans not always assuming the QB is the leader of the team. Because from here (that admittedly being the couch), he doesn’t appear to have the charisma to lead a group of people through a Six Flags parking lot, let alone the fourth quarter down 10 at New England in January. And that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?
But again, this doesn’t mean Mariota can’t be a successful NFL signal-caller. In fact, the Titans might have two young promising quarterbacks, and judging from his beef with J.J. Watt — the man who feasts on quarterbacks for sustenance — Zach Mettenberger seems like he might have the gumption to get the job done. But it’ll likely have to be with another franchise if Tennessee is truly all in on Mariota.
The Titans further attempted to improve their passing attack by drafting Dorial Green-Beckham. This kid is a giant of a receiver, 6’6″ 237 lbs, to the point he could make a decent small ball power forward. But the former five-star recruit was kicked off the Missouri Tigers football team and has had his share of legal troubles. Perhaps coach Ken Whisenhunt feels he’s the next Randy Moss, or they’re just trying to cash in on the last name “Beckham” given the success of Odell last season (no relation). Either way, the Titans had to do something to inject some life into an offense that finished 30th in points per contest in 2014. Receiver Harry Douglas was an underrated offseason signing as well.
Somehow, Tennessee convinced 77-year-old Hall of Fame defensive wizard Dick LeBeau to work as their assistant head coach. LeBeau spent much of his legendary coaching career as the defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but like most coaching legends in Pittsburgh, LeBeau got his start in Ohio (born in Ohio, attended Ohio State under Woody Hayes, drafted by the Cleveland Browns), but I digress. Tennessee nearly matched their 30th offensive ranking by checking in at 29th in points allowed. They also picked up Brian Orakpo, which should help generate some pressure on opposing QBs.
The bad news is that Tennessee basically sucked at everything last year. The good news is they sucked under the radar, and now they have to chance to improve under the radar. No microscope on the coach and far less of one on the rookie QB who went second overall, not first.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Last season, I picked the Jags as a surprise team to make the playoffs in the AFC. This season, I will not be picking the Jags as a surprise team to make the playoffs in the AFC.
But you can definitely see that this organization’s gameplan is in full swing. They have their quarterback of the future in Blake Bortles (still not sold, especially on that name leading you to the promised land), and they’re jumping through hoops to put talented young skill position players around him. In addition to poaching tight end Julius Thomas from Denver, the Jags have selected notable pass-catchers Marqise Lee, Allen Robinson and Rashad Greene in the last two drafts, plus undrafted rookie free agent Allen Hurns racked up six TDs last year. Still, the Jags biggest offseason move from a year ago was probably the one they didn’t make: Justin Forsett was cut by the team, only to ball out for the Ravens (and my fantasy team) a year ago.
Former Seahawks defensive coordinator and current Jacksonville head coach Gus Bradley will be tasked with whipping this defense into shape without the services of third overall draft pick Dante Fowler Jr., who harrowingly ruptured his ACL on the first day of mini-camp.
Sidebar: JAX did however pick up former Colts safety Sergio Brown, who is best known for this…
What’s made the Jaguars the Jaguars though over the last several years has been their abysmal offensive line. The Jags allowed a astounding 71 sacks last season! For context, that was 13 more than the next worst team and 19 more than the third worst (two games a season against J.J. Watt will have that effect). It’s no wonder they finished 2014 with the second-worst red zone offense in the NFL. Suffice it to say former #2 overall pick Luke Joeckel has been a bust to date. Former Bills head man Doug Marrone is now the team’s o-line coach…good luck.
Houston Texans
Justin James Watt is an unbelievable, menacing force of a football player. That’s all that needs to be said about him.
Beside #99, the Texans appear to be a team on the rise, which probably explains Houston being the subject of Hard Knocks. They narrowly missed the playoffs a season ago and third-year wideout Deandre Hopkins is poised for a breakout campaign, so long as somebody can get him the football. Brian Hoyer beat out Ryan Mallett for the Texans starting quarterback job this summer, which seems all well and good in theory. However, HHSR has offered up its opinion on Brian Hoyer in the past.
Hoyer can be “Steady Eddie” for spells throughout a 16 game season. But his lack of consistency and accuracy will hold back any team he leads…unless he’s improved greatly from last year. But it could be worse: a Carr could be running the huddles in Houston.
@HHSReport no more carrs
— SCARFACE (@BrotherMob) December 23, 2013
Hoyer’s cause won’t be aided by the Texans 86ing their greatest player in franchise history (Andre Johnson) this offseason, nor will yet ANOTHER soft tissue injury to tailback Arian Foster. But when he’s been on the field, Foster is still an elite back, having posted 4.8 yards per carry with 1,246 yards and eight scores in just 13 games in 2014.
Foster might not even the most noteworthy injury question mark on this team. Jadeveon Clowney was the #1 pick of the draft in 2014, but barely played before his rookie season was cut short due to injury. He also hasn’t played in the preseason— basically Clowney hasn’t been relevant since Wiz wifed up Amber Rose.
Are we ever going to see this Watt/Clowney tandem we all had such high hopes for? Hakeem and Ralph Sampson had four good years together. T-Mac and Carter had two years. Even Young Chris and Neef Buck had 2 solid albums under their belt. If Clowney can’t return to action and play well this year, this duo might not ever reach it’s full potential, which would be really, really sad.
Indianapolis Colts
The Colts are going to win this division. There’s little doubt about that as long as Andrew Luck is physically able to punch the clock. The additions of the greatest player in Texans franchise history, along with Frank Gore — a professional NFL running back — will help this already dynamic offense that was the third-highest scoring in the league. But I don’t want to talk about that.
This space is reserved to talk about the Indianapolis Colts being the biggest crybaby organization in professional sports today.
I lived in Indiana for two years and spent a decent amount of time in and around Nap Town. When I moved there I expected to hear a bunch of stuff about Larry Bird, Hoosiers and the Indiana Pacers— you know, because Indiana is “all about basketball”, right?
Nope. And I guess that made some sense. The Pacers were decent, but the Colts were Super Bowl contenders annually. So that’s all I ever heard about.
The people that I know there, including friends of the HHSR podcast, really care about the Colts, so it’s hard for me to believe this type of behavior would be deemed acceptable from any self-respecting fan. You can hate the Patriots all you want, but you can’t possibly be proud of your team for its role in a sting operation to bring down a team that your guys simply could not beat. GM Ryan Grigson didn’t specify what caused him to contact the league before the AFC Championship game, but it was most likely the result of a tip from another team (like the Ravens, which makes sense given Chuck Pagano’s ties) or it stemmed from their game against the Pats two months prior.
But footballs deflated by a minuscule amount of PSI, and not the erroneous “2.0 pounds below the legal limit” report that started this whole firestorm, had nothing to do with the Patriots rushing for a combined 423 yards in their two meetings last year. They certainty had nothing to do with Luck posting an average passer rating of 56.5. And they definitely had nothing to do with New England spanking Indy 28-0 in the second half with properly inflated pigskin.
Let’s review the facts: There’s no definitive evidence of wrongdoing on Tom Brady’s behalf; the league ignored precedent and sanctioning guidelines currently on the books by arbitrarily making up its punishment; the sting itself was executed poorly, creating inconclusive results; the appeal process was a joke, and was conducted by the same people who issued the punishment and the league was completely ignorant to all scientific evidence that could’ve contributed to the ball deflation (scientific evidence that also would account for the Colts balls being under-inflated as well).
The Colts have essentially raised snitching to an art form. They pulled this stunt before when Pats clobbered them in the 2003 playoffs. The Colts reacted by complaining to the league about the press coverage played against their receivers (which was legal), cleverly positioning their team president on the competition committee, who would push through a rule we now know as “illegal contact”. When reports surfaced that the Colts sweep the visitor’s locker room for bugs when they’re in Foxborough, and that Tony Dungy confirmed Peyton Manning used to avoid reviewing game plans in the locker room, I was officially done with this entire franchise.
Because the only way the Patriots could’ve beaten “the great Peyton Manning” would be by bugging the locker room, in spite of the fact that Peyton pretty much calls all the plays at the line of scrimmage. Right? This notion also ignores the wild success the Pats have had over the Colts in Indy, and all of the other Colts postseason failures over the last 15 years.
The sheer arrogance behind all this is staggering!
I can’t say the Patriots don’t or haven’t ever bent the rules. What I can say is every team has bent the rules in some way, including the Colts. For a team that tanked an entire season for the purpose of landing its next franchise quarterback to pose as crusaders for gridiron integrity is light years beyond disingenuous. The Colts are legitimate Super Bowl contenders, but instead of fixing their suspect defense, the organization would rather play “Gotcha!” with its greatest adversary by inventing infractions as they go.
The banner at the top of this page represents everything wrong about the Indianapolis Colts. Instead of doing the work required to be great, they’d rather snitch and whine their way to the top. And since they’re incapable of being great, they’d rather celebrate their failures by hanging a banner commemorating a 45-7 AFC Championship ass-kicking to a team that didn’t cheat.
So do us all a favor Indy…
Anthony’s AFC South Winner: Indianapolis Colts
Kenneth’s AFC South Winner: Indianapolis Colts