TSN football analyst Chris Schultz breaks down all the teams and each division in the NFL leading up to the regular season. Next up, the Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC South. Indianapolis Colts Over the last five years the Indianapolis Colts have won 14 games, 10 games, two games, 11 games and 11 games. When they only won two games was the year Peyton Manning was injured and the last two years, when they won 11 games each, was when Andrew Luck emerged. The value of excellence at quarterback can never be discounted. How good is Andrew Luck? No other quarterback has passed for more yards (8,196) in their first two seasons in the history of the NFL. And he doesnt have a strong supporting cast. The offensive line is average, the Colts lost Reggie Wayne for the year, and Trent Richardson did not produce as anticipated after being the third overall pick after Luck and Robert Griffin III in the 2012 Draft. Richardson averaged 2.9 yards per carry. Luck is the obvious talent for the Colts but the hidden talent going into this year is going to be the linebackers. In their 3-4 defence their linebackers should be Eric Walden, a former Green Bay Packer, DQwell Jackson, a former Cleveland Brown, Jerrell Freeman, a former Saskatchewan Roughrider, and Robert Mathis who is going into his 12th year. Linebacker is strong for the Colts. And you have to acknowledge the approach of Chuck Pagano. I have never really bought into the whole Football Family attitude and approach that coaches use to get a team to work together, rely on each other, and perform. But Pagano seems extremely genuine and his players respond. The best asset for Pagano this year is they play in a week division. There are new coaches in Houston (Bill OBrien) and Tennessee (Ken Wisenhunt), and a second year coach in Gus Bradley with a rookie quarterback in Blake Bortles. The division is there for the taking. If Luck were to have an off year it would have been last year, his sophomore campaign. But now in his third year with the same Pep Hamilton playbook, he might create a new record for most passing yards in the first three seasons in the history of NFL football. This one is easy. The Indianapolis Colts, first in the AFC South because of Andrew Luck. Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are my dark horse team in the AFC this year. A lot will depend on the consistency of Jake Lockers performance at quarterback, who is in his final year of his rookie contract. Now, he knows that if he can go from average to really good he will benefit immensely monetarily. Basically a once in a lifetime opportunity that he can control through his own effort and even though he will not receive Rogers, Brady, Manning, Kaepernick or Dalton money, it is still good enough to set him up for life. This is a big year for Locker. And he may have the right personnel around him to make it happen. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt coached Ben Roethlisberger to a Super Bowl when Roethlisberger was 23, and coached Kurt Warner to one when he was 37. Locker is only 26. And the people protecting him could develop into one of the best groups in football. Chance Warmack and Taylor Lewan are both first round picks. Andy Levitre is a highly paid free agent that has 80 consecutive starts from last year and Michael Roos is a nine-year left tackle that is proven. And Michael Oher from Baltimore is an excellent addition constantly overshadowed due to his biographical movie. Oher is an excellent player at guard or tackle, the only unknown is at center. It will also be interesting to see Leon Washington and Dexter McCluster on the same offence with the power of Shonn Greene and the youth of Bishop Sankey. Washington and McCluster are both 58 and about 180lbs; guys who are great punt and kick returners and third down backs. When you look at personal with Tennessee, offensive coordinator Jason Michael and Wisenhunt have a lot to work with. On the opposite side of the ball, Tennessee goes from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and time will tell if they have the linebackers to play that style of defence. They do have an underrated player up front in Jerrell Casey who stands 6 1 and 305 pounds. All 3-4 defences need defensive linemen that never get knocked off the ball, that is Casey. The two big losses last year were home and away to the Indianapolis Colts as Andrew Luck played come-from-behind football to win. This year, September 28th and December 28th are key dates for the Titans. Previous head coach Mike Munchak was 6-12 in the AFC South so what needs to change is clear. But Wisenhunt is a former successful player and coordinator and took the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl. He did it before, maybe again. Tennessee will finish second in the AFC South. Houston Texans I think it is just a matter of time before Bill OBrien is successful as a head coach with the Houston Texans. His background with the New England Patriots gives him a foundation for success and what he was able to create in his time at Penn State, considering the limitations and atmosphere, was remarkable. The Texans have talent everywhere and even though they lost 14 in a row to finish 2-14, nine of the losses were by a touchdown or less. The key component will be Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. Now in his 10th year he has been with five different teams so something is missing. He will not be asked to win games but there will be moments in games that he has to be the reason for a win. Andrew Luck is the best quarterback in the division by far while Jake Locker, Blake Bortles and Fitzpatrick are all similar: mostly unknown over 16 games. On defence, Romeo Crennel is the new coordinator and with his five Super Bowl rings, he cant be questioned. JJ Watt amazed with his explosive effort and polished technique, and if Jadeveon Clowney lives up to expectations Houston could have one of the best defensive front sevens in football. On offence, Arian Foster has to have a bounce back year. In 2012 he scored 17 touchdowns and is still only 28 so time and success history is on his side. I can say almost the same thing for Andre Johnson at wide receiver. His frustration with the organization is understandable on a personal level and if you look at it from his perspective. At 33, his time is limited. As a player he has accomplished everything possible to achieve except for a Super Bowl ring. Now comes OBrien with new everything; attitude, playbook, evaluation. Are the Texans going to win a Super Bowl in the next two years? Unlikely. And in two years Johnson will be 35, one step slower, and a salary cap stress. His time is now, the Texans time is the future. The 14 losses in a row was one of the most unusual stories of last season and will not happen this season. But with everything new and an unknown at quarterback, Houston will improve but not enough to be a playoff team. Theyll finish third in the AFC South. Jacksonville Jaguars Even at 4- 12 last year the Jacksonville Jaguars won-loss record was deceiving. They were 0-7 against teams that made the playoffs last year and the four wins were over Tennessee, Cleveland and Houston twice. Gus Bradley as a head coach has a long was to go but comes from the Seattle Seahawks tree of success in 2012, his last year there, so you know what he is trying to duplicate: a high energy team that has exceptional pass rushers to dominate on third down and maturity at quarterback. In what is a very interesting move, coach Bradley has already committed to Chad Henne as his starter and expressed he will bring Blake Bortles along as the reserve throughout the year. Usually those types of procedures are kept quiet, but it will be interesting to see if he can keep his commitment when times get tough or when injuries happen. A lot has to happen for Jacksonville to be a surprise playoff team. Left tackle Luke Joeckel has to be a consistent 16 game starter and go unnoticed. Toby Gerhart needs to be a 1,000-yard running back and establish himself as dominate in all areas of running, pass catching and blocking. To be a 1,000-yard back you only need to average 62.5 yards per game and that is a realistic goal. Gehart does not have a lot of carries as Adrian Peterson took care of that while he was in Minnesota, so the Jaguars have a fresh running back going into his fifth year. And the defence overall has to improve from 29th against the run and 27th on third down to anywhere around 15th in both categories. Given Bradleys background, that is more likely to happen than other aspects of improvement. A reason I say that free agency was good for Jacksonville the last year was because of two key defensive lineman that fit, Red Bryant and Chris Clemons. Jacksonville may also have the most underrated linebacker in football in Paul Posluszny. All NFL schedules are difficult but Jacksonvilles is reasonable. The Division is not dominant and they play the four NFC East teams, which you never know how will develop. Houston has a better defence, Tennessee has a better overall team, and the Colts have Andrew Luck. Jacksonville will finish fourth in the AFC South. Nike Air Max Zero Sverige .ca sat down with two Blue Jays veterans to get their thoughts on the August collapse. Nike Air Max Zero Köpa . Manager Robin Ventura said before Mondays opener against Minnesota that the veteran right-hander will serve in that role, at least for now. http://www.airmax2016.se/billiga-nike-air-max-skor/air-max-thea.html . -- The Winnipeg Jets felt much better after ending their road trip with a victory. Nike Air Max 2016 . -- Montee Ball acknowledges he was "a little bit" intimidated by Peyton Manning last year, something he says contributed to his slow start. Nike Air Max 2016 Herr . Canada (6-2) stole a point at the last end to secure an 8-6 win over the U.S., which now cannot qualify. The Canadians didnt know they had qualified when they came off the ice after a tense win over the U.BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide, just like all the others in the NHL. So much ice. But in the playoff opener with the Detroit Red Wings, so little room to skate. Pavel Datsyuk managed to find enough space in the tight-checking game to score with 3:01 left and give the Red Wings a 1-0 win on Friday night. Now Boston has to create more room in Game 2 on Sunday or it could be looking at a 2-0 deficit with the best-of-seven series shifting to Detroit. "We thought that the game was actually faster than it was," Bruins centre David Krejci said. "We just have to hold on to the puck and make some confident plays." The more physical Bruins are usually the ones crowding opponents. They allowed the second-fewest goals during the regular season. But the speedy Red Wings stepped up their checking and limited the opportunities for the NHLs third-highest scoring team. "We did a fairly good job of boxing out and playing quicker on the defensive side of things," Detroit defenceman Niklas Kronwall said. "In our zone when we got the puck we were able to get it out fairly quick. We were able to get the pucks deep and go after their defence instead." The top-seeded Bruins won the Presidents Cup with the most points in the regular season, 117. The eighth-seeded Red Wings had just 93. But Boston coach Claude Julien knew going into the series that the disparity would not be nearly as great in the playoffs, which usually feature tighter checking and physical play. "I think we were physical enough" in the opener, Julien said Saturday. "We still had a lot of good hits. They do a good job when it comes to our forecheck. They get there, they like to have bodies in front of us on the forecheckers to kind of slow us down and we have to find ways to get through that." Five more things to look for as the Bruins try to gain a split: PAVEL PRODUCES: Datsyuk averaged 23 goals in his first 11 seasons with Detroit and had 17 this year despite playing in just 45 games. He missed 16 games with a knee injury and played just six moore regular-season games after returning April 4.dddddddddddd But he came through as he has so many times to score the winning goal. "Ive had him for a long time and, obviously, hes a world-class player and hes coming back from an injury, which is obvious when you see him out there," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said, "but he can still do some very good things." STINGY GOALIES: Bostons Tuukka Rask had the better numbers during the regular season with an NHL-leading seven shutouts while Detroits Jimmy Howard had just two. And both were impressive in the opener despite not facing many challenging shots. Rask did make an outstanding pad save on a rebound shot by Darren Helm early in the third period, and Howard knocked aside a deflection by Milan Lucic less than 30 seconds before Datsyuk scored. Expect more of the same stinginess as the series goes on. "Tuukka is a great goalie and we are going to have to keep finding ways to go to the net and get screens in front of his eyes because if he sees it, hes going to stop it," Howard said. POWER PLAY: The Bruins had the NHLs third-best power play, but the Red Wings committed just one penalty. The Red Wings were 0 for 2 on Friday after finishing 18th in power-play production. BRUINS DEPTH: Boston had 10 players with at least 10 goals and has four solid lines. But left wings Chris Kelly on the third line and Daniel Paille on the fourth were sidelined Friday and could miss Sundays game. The Bruins also were without two of their top six defencemen, Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller. Julien said he didnt know if Bartkowski and Miller would play Sunday. JUST ONE GAME: The Red Wings arent likely to get overconfident after winning the first game, even if it was on the road. In the second round last season, they led Chicago 3-1, then lost the next three games. The Blackhawks went on to win the Stanley Cup in six games over the Bruins. "You dont win the Presidents Trophy for not being a good team," Detroit forward Drew Miller said. "So weve got to be prepared." cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '
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