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Who wins the AFC South?


ET80

Who wins?  

49 members have voted

  1. 1. 2020 AFC South Champ?

    • The Incumbent - Houston
      10
    • The Overachiever - Tennessee
      25
    • The Old Guard - Indianapolis
      13
    • The Bad Boy - Jacksonville
      1


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8 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

I think anyone reasonable will tell you the Ravens are better than the Titans... despite their playoff loss last year.

A healthy Big Ben makes the Steelers better than the Texans IMO.

I think the Browns will be better than the Colts, but you can easily argue they're the same right now.  Same with the Bengals and Jags.

 

Yes, there are a lot of questions all over the league.  But I think there are just as many questions in the AFCS.  So the floors are pretty similar across divisions, but I think the ceiling is definitely higher for the NFCW, NFCS, NFCN, AFCN and AFCW.  NFCE is probably a wash with the AFCS.  The AFCE is clearly the worst division in football.

I just remembered they play each other this year going to be some interesting and hopefully fun games between the two divisions.

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20 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

I think anyone reasonable will tell you the Ravens are better than the Titans... despite their playoff loss last year.

Maybe I'm not reasonable (very possible) or maybe I'm caught up in this divisional pride - but I think that game was very telling. Sure, the Titans were hot and Baltimore came in after a bye week. I get that.

What gets me about this game is that Tennessee beat Baltimore at their own game. Tennessee watched Baltimore film, said "Hey, we can do that too" and beat the Ravens at it. It was thorough and physical, Tennessee was the bully that Baltimore was during the regular season.

Now, this could be an indictment on Lamar Jackson in the playoffs, I don't know. It's not the first time the Ravens were quickly bounced out in the L-Jack era. I just firmly believe that both teams are built similar, and Tennessee just executed it better from top to bottom - and I didn't really see anything that would make me think Baltimore would fare better in a rematch.

20 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

A healthy Big Ben makes the Steelers better than the Texans IMO.

I'd put this on coaching more than anything. If you put Mike Tomlin on the Texans and Bill O'Brien on the Steelers, you'd be able to say that the Texans are better than the Steelers. Offense probably goes to the Texans (even with a healthy Ben) defense goes to Pittsburgh, ST is probably a push. Coaching? Distinct advantage to Pittsburgh...

...IMO (feel free to refute).

23 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

I think the Browns will be better than the Colts, but you can easily argue they're the same right now.  Same with the Bengals and Jags

I'm not high on the Browns until they win 8+ games, and I actually have the Colts as a sleeper with their OL, RBs and HC. Frank Reich is destined to go down as a top 5 coach in due time, getting anything out of Jacoby Brissett is worthy of an award. I can concede the Bengals and Jags, however.

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FWIW, PFF recently did a massive simulation of the 2020 season:

Quote

While we’ve known about each team's opponents for some time, we now know the order. With the help of our PFF Elo rating system, our grades and some market data, we’ve simulated the 2020 season 10,000 times and have distributions for win totals, divisional title odds, etc. 

 

I've taken the average of each team's predicted win total within their divisions, and here's how the divisions rank:

NFC West: 8.5 wins

NFC South: 8.3 wins

AFC North: 8.2 wins

AFC West: 8.1 wins

NFC North: 8.0 wins

AFC South: 7.9 wins

NFC East: 7.6 wins

AFC East: 7.5 wins

 

As it relates to the OP, they have the Titans winning the division with 9 wins.

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41 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

I think anyone reasonable will tell you the Ravens are better than the Titans... despite their playoff loss last year.

Why? Because they won more regular season games? Keep in mind we started 2-4 because of Mariota. We were clearly one of the best teams once Tannehill took the helm and beating the Ravens with the MVP in their own building must count for something.

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48 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

I think anyone reasonable will tell you the Ravens are better than the Titans... despite their playoff loss last year.

A healthy Big Ben makes the Steelers better than the Texans IMO.

I think the Browns will be better than the Colts, but you can easily argue they're the same right now.  Same with the Bengals and Jags.

 

Yes, there are a lot of questions all over the league.  But I think there are just as many questions in the AFCS.  So the floors are pretty similar across divisions, but I think the ceiling is definitely higher for the NFCW, NFCS, NFCN, AFCN and AFCW.  NFCE is probably a wash with the AFCS.  The AFCE is clearly the worst division in football.

On the Ravens being better than the Titans, yeah, I'll agree.  I don't think it's by much though, and of course, things change in the course of a year.

I think Tennessee, last season, at the end of the year, was every bit as good, but with losing a DC and Tannehill and Henry both due to regress, I would rank Baltimore ahead right now.

As for the rest, I don't know.  I don't know if you ever get a healthy Big Ben again.  He's 38 and has constantly been injured lately, which isn't a good combo.  Browns I will believe in when I see it, no matter how many times they win the offseason.  Bengals are in rebuild, and though Burrow can be a great QB, I don't think he'll be leading them to a Super Bowl year 1.  I would rank the Jags below either of them, but the Colts I'd put ahead of both, even with them being a bit of a wild card.  Texans too. They still have Fuller, Watt, and Watson, and finally a pretty stable OL.  BOB is terrible, but he's got a lot to work with.

44 minutes ago, BleedTheClock said:

We’ll see. I would bet they’re closer to 10 than 32 this year. I’d bet a lot on that. 

Just like last season, the Browns will be great!  They're the team to beat in 2019!

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22 minutes ago, ET80 said:

Maybe I'm not reasonable (very possible) or maybe I'm caught up in this divisional pride - but I think that game was very telling. Sure, the Titans were hot and Baltimore came in after a bye week. I get that.

What gets me about this game is that Tennessee beat Baltimore at their own game. Tennessee watched Baltimore film, said "Hey, we can do that too" and beat the Ravens at it. It was thorough and physical, Tennessee was the bully that Baltimore was during the regular season.

Now, this could be an indictment on Lamar Jackson in the playoffs, I don't know. It's not the first time the Ravens were quickly bounced out in the L-Jack era. I just firmly believe that both teams are built similar, and Tennessee just executed it better from top to bottom - and I didn't really see anything that would make me think Baltimore would fare better in a rematch.

 

2 minutes ago, dtait93 said:

Why? Because they won more regular season games? Keep in mind we started 2-4 because of Mariota. We were clearly one of the best teams once Tannehill took the helm and beating the Ravens with the MVP in their own building must count for something.

 

JMO, but I think adding Calais Campbell, Derek Wolfe, and Patrick Queen to Brandon Williams goes a long way to upgrading a team's run defense so I don't expect the same results if they match up again in 2020.

Not to mention, that game was much closer than the final score.  I remember there being a fair amount of 4th and short opportunities that the Ravens idiotically tried to QB sneak on rather than running a read-option with Lamar and Ingram.  I think if the OC had those plays back, he would have run read-option, which would have tipped the scale in the Ravens favor.

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1 minute ago, Daniel said:

I think Tennessee, last season, at the end of the year, was every bit as good, but with losing a DC and Tannehill and Henry both due to regress, I would rank Baltimore ahead right now.

Pees is a big loss, but Yanda is also a big loss for Baltimore’s o-line. Also why expect regression from Tannehill/Henry, but not expect any regression for any of Baltimore’s players, like Jackson for example?

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3 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

JMO, but I think adding Calais Campbell, Derek Wolfe, and Patrick Queen to Brandon Williams goes a long way to upgrading a team's run defense so I don't expect the same results if they match up again in 2020.

I'll give you Campbell, but I was never high on Wolfe - he's not really anything to make or break a team, he's probably depth/rotation at best nowadays.

Rookies are hard to project, even one who fits like Queen to the Ravens. LBs are always a tricky spot, too - for every Luke Kuechley, you'll have a Aaron Curry. 

They MIGHT help, but they might be more of the same. 

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6 minutes ago, ET80 said:

I'll give you Campbell, but I was never high on Wolfe - he's not really anything to make or break a team, he's probably depth/rotation at best nowadays.

As a pass rusher, I agree.  But he's been a very good run defender his whole career, and that's usually the last skill that declines with age.

7 minutes ago, ET80 said:

Rookies are hard to project, even one who fits like Queen to the Ravens. LBs are always a tricky spot, too - for every Luke Kuechley, you'll have a Aaron Curry. 

They MIGHT help, but they might be more of the same. 

True.  But even the addition of Campbell alone should be a big help to their run defense.

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2 hours ago, ET80 said:

It's not a stretch to say that the two worst teams in football are in the AFC North. Joe Burrow might be good, but he's not going to do well behind a patchwork OL and a LT coming off of a torn labrum who has yet to play a snap of NFL football. Cleveland has lost all benefit of doubt after last years' debacle, they are not claim to be better than anyone until they can get to 8-8. Every year I hear it's "the year" so forgive me if I'm thinking that record is just skipping at this point.

AFC North will have 3 teams in the playoffs next year.

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