The Houston Texans’ division, the AFC South, has ranked as one of the worst divisions in the NFL at least since Andrew Luck retired.
Whether it has been the hapless Tennessee Titans struggling to qualify for the playoffs from 2008-17, or the Jacksonville Jaguars only qualifying once since 2008, the AFC South has had a balance of two strong teams — typically the Texans and the Indianapolis Colts — and two putrid teams, the Jaguars and Titans.
Since 2019, the balance of power has shifted to where the Texans are among the basement dwellers, but the Jaguars are still the first on the proverbial playoff couch every year. In that span the Titans have qualified for the postseason for three straight years, including division championships the past two seasons.
According to Jason La Canfora from CBS Sports, the AFC South isn’t the worst of the NFL’s eight divisions in 2022 — just seventh overall, or the second-worst division in the league.
Man, they really make it hard not to just slot them in the 8-hole every year and forget about it. They want to hold that spot down with a vengeance. But this year it’s addition by subtraction. Just by Shad Khan finally waking up and tossing Urban Meyer out of the league they get a bump. The mere fact we don’t have him to mock anymore gets them out of the cellar. That is tremendous progress alone. And must be applauded. The Colts have a chance to be a factor, too, and swapping out Carson Wentz (to the NFC East no less!) for Matt Ryan is another upgrade. The Jags can’t be a football atrocity with Urban gone, though the Titans’ window to win big with Derrick Henry/Ryan Tannehill is closing and the Texans aren’t even pretending they care about 2022 as part of their three-year teardown.
La Canfora’s evaluation of the Texans is as substantive as a bowl of ramen noodles. Nevertheless the Texans still do have a challenge ahead of them as they have the 19th-toughest schedule in the NFL and still have question marks across the roster.