Biggest remaining needs for each AFC South team

Heading down South in this episode, I want to analyze the biggest remaining needs for the Texans, Colts, Jaguars and Titans at this stage of the offseason. With two teams among them, it's a specific positional need, while with another one it's just a unit that needs overall help and the final one needing a schematic upgrade.

Houston Texans – Offensive line help

Don’t get me wrong – I’m really looking forward to watching the Texans next season. Having Deshaun Watson, J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus and most of all high hopes back, will take this team a long way. If all those guys stay healthy, Houston could have a top-tier defense and a special young signal-caller this year.

However, looking at them on paper, I can’t help but worry about this offensive line. Outside of center Nick Martin, I don’t think any of the other guys they have up front would start on more than three or four teams. Julie’n Davenport was a developmental prospect in last year’s draft, but he was thrown in the fire early on at left tackle, after trading Duane Brown to Seattle, and he had some rough moments.

Zach Fulton and Senio Kelemete saw the field for more than half of last season, but that was more due to injury than talent. Seantrel Henderson came in as a seventh-round pick in 2014 and started 26 straight games for the Bills, but was diagnosed with a disease, that needed two intestinal surgeries, and he has been suspended twice for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Houston added Mississippi State’s Martinas Rankin in the draft, who has inside-out flexibility and Greg Mancz could probably make a move to guard, but they don’t have much behind those guys and none of them is a proven starter at the current state of their careers. Once again, I’m very excited to watch this team back with their entire cast and despite not having a first- or second-round pick in the draft, I thought they still added some guys, who could really help them, but I think what they have up front might keep them from being a contender this season.

Indianapolis Colts – Cornerback

Let’s start like this – I’m so happy to finally be able to talk about something else than the Colts' offensive line this year. This team’s success is all about Andrew Luck’s health and how he is coming back from shoulder surgeries, after not having thrown “the duke” for about one-and-a-half years.

I think it was time for them to move on from Donte Moncrief and Frank Gore, in favor of putting the ball in the hands of their young skill players. Let’s go to the defensive side of the ball. A year ago I said that I thought the Colts might have the worst roster in all of football and that was apparent with their defensive personnel. This season I have a different feeling about them. A lot of the guys they have in the front seven are still unproven and I have yet to see them control games up front, but I see a lot of talented players they have added.

I think the key piece to this defense will be free safety Malik Hooker, who fell right into their lap at 15th overall in last year’s draft. He has unbelievable range and ball-skills, plus I already saw some improvement in his tackling security during his shortened rookie campaign. T.J. Green and Clayton Geathers will be competing for the strong safety spot and you will probably see both of them quite a bit.

I really liked Quiny Wilson, who they also drafted last season out of Florida, and I think Nate Hairston is a starting nickel in this league. Still, their options at the number two corner spot are less than fruitful. Kenny Moore, Pierre Desir and Chris Milton are no household names and I don’t expect them to be any time soon. I believe opponents will take advantage of whoever lines on the perimeter for Indy early on and force them to grow quickly.

Jacksonville Jaguars – Middle Linebacker

Raise your hand if you predicted a year ago that the Jaguars would be in the AFC Championship game. Nobody? Me neither. I thought they had a good shot at finishing around .500, but I simply didn’t believe Blake Bortles could take them anywhere and I didn’t see the Sacksonville’s defense emerge quite like they did.

This team went from being one of the laughing stocks of the NFL to a squad, which was physically dominating opponents on a weekly basis. Heading into this upcoming season, Bortles still looks like their guy, especially since they passed up on homestate sensation Lamar Jackson in the draft. Regardless of who was under center, the plan would have been to hand the ball off to their punishing running back Leonard Fournette 25-30 times a game, behind a big offensive line that added the premier guard in free agency (Andrew Norwell).

Newly signed tight-end Austin Seferian-Jenkins had a metamorphosis last season and even though it’s a young room, these wide receivers are extremely talented. Defensively, the Jags’ front looks even scarier with first-round pick Taven Bryan out of Florida added to the rotation. The back-end is what makes this unit so special. Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye are certainly both top five cornerbacks in the league.

Tashaun Gipson is an excellent center fielder and Barry Church was an important veteran acquisition a year ago. They lost nickelback Aaron Colvin, but D.J. Hayden and Jalen Myrick will be competing for that spot. Unfortunately, Paul Posluszny retired at the end of season after a very underrated 11-year career and that leaves second-year man Blair Brown to step in for a Jacksonville legend. This team already went into a lot of nickel packages, with Telvin Smith and Myles Jack as their two linebackers, but opponents might decide to punish the Jaguars by having the youngster as part of their base sets and forcing them to stay in those with heavy personnel.

Tennessee Titans – A gameplan to feature Marcus Mariota’s strengths

These Titans might not have a boatload of stars quite yet, but looking at this roster – they have as complete a team as there is. There was no single position I could have pointed out where they would really need an upgrade and at most of them, they have pretty good depth as well.

The Titans have a strong offensive line, a bruising runner in Derrick Henry, sophomore receiver Corey Davis looks like a future star and defensively they added key pieces on the edge (Boston College rookie Harold Landry), at inside linebacker (Alabama rookie Rashaan Evans) and in the secondary (free agent cornerback Malcolm Butler). What is truly missing when I watch them on tape, is a plan for how to utilize their dual-threat QB Marcus Mariota in the right fashion.

Tennessee is built to push defenses around in the run game and give their receivers one-on-one matchups off play-action. However, when I put on the tape, I see way too many true drop-back plays and they never really made the young signal-caller comfortable at reading the field. Think of Cam Newton when he came out of Auburn’s spread-system. The coaching staff only asked him to read half the field and get comfortable in the pocket, before wanting him to scan the entire field.

While one of my biggest critiques of Cam’s mental game has been his tendency to keep tunnel vision, I believe the Titans put way too much on Mariota’s plate once they drafted him second overall. He was thrown into the fire immediately and even though he handled it pretty well, I still believe they should let him operate in a fashion, that makes him more comfortable. New office coordinator Matt LaFleur seems to be a perfect match with the young signal-caller. He brings in a lot of Shanahan influences, when it comes to running zone and heavy boot action off of it.