Houston Texans: Re-Ranking the AFC South after two new coaching hires

The AFC South sure had one of the more wild years of any division in recent memory.

An unexpected top overall seed, a coach that didn’t travel back with his team after a primetime loss, and an unexpected choking of a playoff appearance all happened around the Houston Texans.

After seeing the Jaguars and Texans fire their coaches on opposite ends of the urgency spectrum, a pre-free agency ranking is what’s in store. Looking at the AFC South, Tennessee still depends heavily on Derrick Henry. One could argue the same for the Colts and Jonathan Taylor as Taylor wound up as the league’s leading rusher.

As for Jacksonville, Doug Pederson was chosen after Byron Leftwich wanted no part of Trent Baalke. Houston, meanwhile, took the longest path to finding a head coach that, in the end, made a lot of NFL fans scratch their heads at the move.

Now that we have a nice reset, which team is the worst team in the AFC South?

Fourth place in the AFC South: It’s definitely not the Houston Texans

Jacksonville would have only two miracle wins on the year over Miami and Buffalo if it wasn’t for the Colts completely crumbling in a “win and in” situation in the season finale. Jacksonville played a handful of teams very close in 2021 and then would often follow that up with being blown out the following week.

Jacksonville still has a long way to go, and having the fourth-most cap space in the league is one way to get off on the right foot. In addition to that, Jacksonville has the first overall pick. But, of course, that’s all sunshine and roses until one remembers that Baalke is the GM in charge of drafting.

It will be another long year for Jacksonville, and they will most likely repeat for last in the division.