The AFC South is going to be an interesting division in 2020 if the NFL has a season. A key reason for that will be the signal-callers in the division, who all have a wide array of experience.
For the Indianapolis Colts, longtime veteran Philip Rivers will be the guy after 16 seasons with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers. Suiting up for the Tennessee Titans will be another veteran in Ryan Tannehill, who had a career resurgence in 2019.
As for the young quarterbacks in the division, there is the polarizing Deshaun Watson, who has proven to be one of the league’s best players while with the Houston Texans. Lastly, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be starting second-year phenom Gardner Minshew II, who was the highest-graded rookie quarterback of 2019, according to Pro Football Focus.
However, when stacking up the Jags’ group of quarterbacks to those in other divisions, many rank them near the bottom of the league. That includes NFL.com’s Adam Schein, who ranked the group sixth with just the AFC East and NFC East ranked behind them at the No. 7 and No. 8 spots, respectively.
Watson is amazing — and especially great with the game on the line. Even though DeAndre Hopkins was inexplicably shipped to Arizona, Watson will still be able to work his winning-time magic with a crop of solid wideouts at his disposal. Tannehill was arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the league during the 2019 regular season. While it is impossible to expect the same domination in 2020, he’s now entrenched as The Guy in Nashville. In theory, he should be more comfortable. I expect Rivers to bounce back in a major way behind the Colts’ incredible offensive line. He’s not done. Minshew was a solid rookie, and Doug Marrone really likes him.
That’s high praise for the division’s quarterbacks despite them not being ranked high.
As for Minshew, he shocked many in 2019 after having to abruptly start Week 1 with Nick Foles sustaining a collarbone injury. Long story short, Minshew showed the team enough to the point where they are now comfortable with starting him again in 2020.
While the team added more defensive pieces than offensive, they were able to add and new veteran offensive coordinator in Jay Gruden. Additionally, they signed veteran tight end Tyler Eifert, who once played for Gruden with the Cincinnati Bengals. Also, returning from injured reserve will be James O’Shaughnessy (a favorite of Minshew’s) and Josh Oliver, who was a third round pick from 2019.
As for the rest of the division, the Colts are built so well around Rivers to the point where he should be successful and better than he was last season. Tannehill won’t be losing much in terms of the pieces around him, and having a year under his belt with the same coaches should only help.
Watson, on the other hand, is the quarterback I have concerns for in terms of a decline. Over the years, the Texans have subtracted so much key talent to the point where it will catch up, and losing DeAndre Hopkins specifically could hurt them offensively.