Way Too Early AFC South Power Rankings

Now that the Super Bowl is behind us, we turn our attention to things like the scouting combine, free agency, the draft, and way-too-early power rankings for 2023. Here are our thoughts on the status of the AFC South before all those roster-building events take place.

Kirby Lee, USA Today Sports

NASHVILLE - On Monday, FanDuel released their "Way Too Early NFL Power Ranking." To the surprise of almost no one, the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs occupy the top spot, followed, perhaps surprisingly, by the Cincinnati Bengals rather than the Philadelphia Eagles, who lost to the Chiefs on a last-second field goal. The Eagles are third, followed by Buffalo and San Francisco, rounding out the top five. 

Other than the Bengals jumping the Eagles, the biggest surprise of the top ten, at least to me, is Jacksonville. The Jags find themselves in the top ten, occupying the No. 9 spot.  

As for the Tennessee Titans and the rest of the AFC South, you have to move closer to the bottom, much closer, to find the rest of this division. 

So where do the Titans rank?

Tennessee is No.24 according to these rankings, and the rest of the AFC South sits at No. 31 and 32, with the Colts just above the Texans to round out the rankings.   

Of course, FanDuel is a gambling site, and these rankings are designed to draw action from gamblers to their site, but they are at least somewhat accurate in where teams would seem to align following last season.    

How accurate are these rankings in our opinions on the AFC South?

Spot on, though I personally don't believe the Jags are the No.9 best team in the league. They are the reigning division champs and the only team of the four members to make the playoffs. 

For the Jags to win the division, it took the Titans careening off a cliff and blowing a four-game lead culminating with the Jags having to struggle to a 20-16 home win over the injury-depleted Titans team amid a seven-game losing streak to end the season.

To put it mildly, the Titans were bad, real bad, and their offensive line was worse, yet the Jags had to sweat it out until the final 2:51 of the fourth quarter trailing 16-10, before Josh Allen's fumble return touchdown gave the Jags the lead and the victory. 

Add in the fact that Ryan Tannehill was out, and the Titans started Josh Dobbs, at quarterback, who was signed off the Detriot Lions practice to the Titans active roster in week 16, just two weeks before him starting the season finale, and winner takes the division matchup in Jacksonville  

So, Jacksonville is the way to early leader as the top team, but not by as much as some would want you to believe. The Titans are second, and the Colts and Texans, who each have new head coaches heading into 2023, fill in the final two spots.     

Things can change here depending on what each team does in free agency and the draft, so to adjust for those events, expect an updated look at the still-early but closer-to-the-season edition of our ranking here on All Titans! 

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