The AFC South is Tennessee's to Lose

During the middle of the 2019 season, the Tennessee Titans benched Marcus Mariota and decided to start former Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill. To say it worked like a charm would be an understatement. The team finished 9-7 and snagged the last playoff spot in the American Football Conference, but their playoff run saw them eliminate the New England Patriots in what would be Tom Brady's final game as a Patriot, and they also took down the 14-2 top-seeded Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Playoff. They were defeated soundly by the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship, but even so, the Titans exceeded expectations.

Fast forward to this point, and the Titans are established as the top team in the AFC South. Having the NFL's best running back will do that. Derrick Henry. My goodness. The man dubbed "King Henry" is coming off a 2000-yard season, and this was a year after he pretty much established himself as a top runner (if not the top runner) in the NFL, and also despite a slow start to the 2020 season. Henry's effort and Tannehill's stellar passing led the Titans to the AFC South crown, but despite improving by two games from 2019, they were one and done--beaten by the Ravens in the Wild Card Playoff. So what did they do? All they did was add Julio Jones. No big deal.

From the looks of it, the AFC South is truly the Titans' to win or lose. Yes, the Indianapolis Colts are also a 2020 playoff team, but they seem to have problems entering the 2021 season. The main one: Carson Wentz is injured. An original report had Wentz out for 5-12 weeks due to foot surgery, though now, it has been stated that Wentz could be good to start on Week 1. That is a huge leap from being out for up to three months. Either Wentz is a quick healer, or the Colts are rushing him. I hope it's not the latter, though knowing their history of handling injured players, I wouldn't be surprised. A healthy Wentz is Indy's only shot at making the playoffs, let alone staying in pace with Tennessee in 2021. A very strange statement considering how poorly he played in his last season with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Houston Texans enter their 20th season of play under the darkest of clouds. Actually, it's really the same dark cloud that had been hovering over them in the last few seasons, but it just gets darker and stormier. The 2019 Divisional Playoff saw the Texans turn a 24-0 lead into a 20-point loss. The 2020 season sees immense disarray caused by then-coach Bill O'Brien, to the point where even JJ Watt (who never really says anything) actually ranted. Oh, and they traded DeAndre Hopkins for peanuts prior to the 2020 season. They fired O'Brien, but the damage was done. But you would think that 2021 would be a clean slate for the Texans, right? Wrong. DeShaun Watson. That's all I'll say.

The Jacksonville Jaguars achieved their goal: they are the reigning, defending, undisputed Tank Bowl champions. They got their prize: Trevor Lawrence. Now where do they go from here? Let's tell it like it is: the Jaguars are a mess. As each season passes it becomes harder and harder to believe that this team nearly made the Super Bowl just four years ago. What followed was player hubris, and questionable decisions that turned the Jaguars from a Super Bowl contender, to...well...this. The running joke in the last two years is that Shad Khan sacrificed the Jaguars so his son, Tony Khan, could own and develop All Elite Wrestling.

So once again, the Tennessee Titans enter the 2021 season in full control of their destiny when it comes to the AFC South. It seems unlikely that the Colts, Texans, or Jaguars will over take the Titans in the division, but even so, the Titans cannot get comfortable. They need to take what they did in 2020, and turn it up a few notches to really create distance between themselves and their division foes.

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