Jaguars’ AFC South Rivals Could Define 2024 Offseason
The 2023 season showed the AFC South is far from the laughing stock it once was.
After years of the AFC South consistently fielding, at most, one potential contender at a time, the division became much more competitive in 2023.
Three teams won at least nine games and had a chance to make the playoffs entering Week 18. The only team to not finish with a working record were the Tennessee Titans.
And it is fair to think that this isn’t the last time the AFC South flexes its muscles as a division. Entering the 2024 offseason, the division has three teams that could figure to be major players in free-agency: the Titans, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Houston Texans.
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Each of the three teams was ranked in the top five by PFF in their ranking of teams best set up for the future entering free agency. In short, which teams can be the most aggressive this March. The Texans ranked No. 1, while the Titans and Colts ranked No. 3 and No. 4 respectively.
In short, the Jaguars are going to need to be prepared for all three teams to retool and be potentially even better in 2024 than they were this past season. Considering the Jaguars finished a disappointing 9-8 and second in the AFC South, they will need to find a way to keep pace.
“First of all, you want to be against the best. You want to compete in the best division because if you’re going to be in the best division and you can win that division, you’ve got a great chance to go into the next round of the playoffs and win a lot of football games and be the last one standing and that’s the goal,” Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said last month.
“So, you can’t ever shy away from competition, they’ve done an excellent job there, Indianapolis has done an excellent job, Tennessee’s going to be fine. This division is better than people gave it credit for being, and I think you can sense how quickly it turned. A year ago, we were in the same position Houston was in this year. Almost storybook endings for both organizations. Both of them won the last game, back-to-back years to put themselves in the playoffs and win the division. I like the fact that this division’s competitive, you don’t want it any other way. That’s why you’re in this business. So, let’s roll out the ball, let’s go to work and let’s see where we are at, at the end of this next year.”
