{"id":5980,"date":"2019-08-04T14:22:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T14:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=5980"},"modified":"2019-08-05T02:54:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T02:54:01","slug":"texans-colts-expected-to-top-afc-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/texans-colts-expected-to-top-afc-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans, Colts Expected To Top AFC South"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The AFC South is arguably the toughest division in the NFL to get a handle on. All four teams have a very high upside and a very low downside. The NFL futures betting odds<\/a> have the Indianapolis Colts installed as -125 favorites to win the division which is a very optimistic assessment considering that the defending champion Houston Texans are essentially unchanged from a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOUSTON TEXANS:<\/strong> The Houston Texans had a bizarre though ultimately successful 2018 season. They looked like a complete grease fire to start the year opening the season 0-3 putting head coach Bill O\u2019Brien squarely on the ‘hot seat’. Although the specific catalyst for what happened next is unclear, the Texans turned things around and then some winning 9 straight and 10 of 11. They’d finish the season 11-5 but would end up losing to the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs. It’s tough to see the Texans not regressing somewhat this season. One thing that worked in Houston’s favor last year was a +13 turnover differential and this stat has a way of ‘evening out’ over the long term. Bill O’Brien still isn’t a great clock or game manager. Quarterback Deshaun Watson is excellent but played last season behind one of the worst offensive lines in football. The Texans drafted to improve it but the jury is still out. They lost cornerback Tyrann Mathieu and star linebacker Jadeveon Clowney is currently a holdout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS:<\/strong> A (more or less) healthy Andrew Luck is a great start for the Colts’ 2019 season but there’s a lot more to like in Indianapolis. The Colts had a second straight killer draft class adding a laundry list of talent with three of the first 59 picks. One of the most significant draftees could be wide receiver Parris Campbell who along with T.Y. Hilton and tight end Eric Ebron gives Luck an abundance of weapons. The defense was solid last year and got better with the addition of All Pro linebacker Justin Houston. Luck is nursing a calf injury that is keeping him out of training camp but assuming this is no big deal everything in Indy is looking good under head coach Frank Reich. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS: <\/strong>The Jacksonville Jaguars had a nasty defense last year finishing #5 in total defense and #4 in scoring defense. They could get even better this year now that they’ve got a capable quarterback that should help them improve on last year’s #31 finish in scoring offense. Nick Foles signed as a free agent in the offseason and is an immediate and significant upgrade from Blake Bortles. Just the improvement in ball protection and game management is dramatic. He should help Lenoard Fournette get even better and help him find more room to run. Jags drafted well getting defensive end Josh Allen out of Kentucky and offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor out of Florida. If Jacksonville’s offense shows any improvement the Jags could be back in the competitive mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TENNESSEE TITANS:<\/strong> Might be the toughest team in the division to figure out. If Jake Mariotta doesn’t pan out at quarterback Tennessee will turn to Ryan Tannehill which is good and bad. Tannehill has experience but has never shown much consistency. The wide receiving corps looks better and the defense looks solid. If head coach Mike Vrabel can do his job and Mariotta can stay healthy the Titans could show some significant improvement. They might have the lowest downside in the division if things go bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS<\/li>
  2. HOUSTON TEXANS<\/li>
  3. JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS<\/li>
  4. TENNESSEE TITANS<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    BET JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS OVER 7.5 WINS -125
    BET JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS–YES +250<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Get the latest NFL football odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The AFC South is arguably the toughest division in the NFL to get a handle on. All four teams have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5982,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5980\/revisions\/5982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}