Rich’s Pick to Win the AFC South This Season Is ...?

The AFC South was the last division left on the board, and the show did not need long, because two of the three picks agreed on almost everything except the top.

Chris Brockman went first and went back to the well. He called Jacksonville to win this division last year and got it right, so he is doing it again. His order was Jaguars, Texans, Titans, Colts, with both Jacksonville and Houston into the playoffs. He likes Tennessee's improvement under a new coaching staff, and he is out on Indianapolis for a specific reason. He does not see Daniel Jones returning from the injury as quickly as advertised, or getting back to what he was doing before it.

TJ Jefferson agreed on the shape and disagreed on the winner, and his case rested on one side of the ball. "This Texans defense is frightening. They're scary." That was enough to put Houston first. He is higher on Indianapolis than Brockman is, and the reason is the same player Brockman is fading. "Before Daniel Jones got hurt last year, he was balling, man, and he was kind of taking our opinion and our thought of what Daniel Jones was and kind of flipping it around a little bit." He likes Jonathan Taylor too. He still has Tennessee fourth.

Jefferson also lodged a formal objection to the Titans on aesthetic grounds, taking issue with an entirely bald coaching staff and proposing there ought to be a rule requiring some variety in the room.

Rich landed with Brockman on the winner and with Jefferson on the bottom half. Jacksonville is the class of the division. Houston makes it as the two seed, and his hesitation there is not the defense, which everyone agrees on, but whether the offense scores enough. "I'm still just concerned about their offense putting up enough points." He also has the Colts ahead of the Titans.

His one caveat about the team he picked to win sits in the backfield. Rich likes the Jaguars everywhere else and said plainly that he is concerned about who is running it, with Liam Coen spending the summer hyping a back Rich has not seen enough of yet. The receiver room, on the other hand, he considers solved.

On the coaching, he had no reservations at all. "I do love what Liam Coen has cooked up there, man." Very much so.

He has one request for how Jacksonville uses its most interesting player, and it is not a small one. Rich wants Travis Hunter on both sides of the football. "None of this just one side stuff."