With the regular season coming to an end and for most teams their entire season coming to an end, it’s time to start looking ahead to the draft. By now we know the strengths of each team, along with the weaknesses of each team. With the draft coming up, each team will try and fix its weaknesses to give them the best shot at taking the division crown next year. Let’s take a look at the biggest need of each of the AFC South teams: Colts, Jaguars, Texans and Titans.
Houston Texans: Quarterback
The Houston Texans were one of the best teams in football last year and one of the early favorites to go to the Super Bowl this year.
However, now they are looking at having the first overall pick in the draft. What happened? Well, a big part of it was the quarterback position.
They have the seventh ranked defense as far as yards per game, but the 26th in points per game. A big part of that is due to the fact that they had the fourth most interceptions thrown in the NFL. On top of that they are last in the NFL in turnover differential.
Arian Foster being hurt didn’t help the team, but Ben Tate is a good backup and can carry the load. With Foster back next year and a couple of talented receivers in Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins, a talented quarterback could vault this team back into playoff and Super Bowl contention.
Look for Houston to target Teddy Bridgewater if he comes out and if not then Derek Carr or even possibly Blake Bortles as a dark horse candidate.
Indianapolis Colts: Offensive Line
This Indianapolis Colts team has a lot of holes for a division winning team. They need help at the wide receiver position and on defense, but the biggest thing they need to do if they want to keep getting better and be a legitimate Super Bowl contender is protect Andrew Luck.
Luck is one of the fastest rising stars in the league and if he were to go down with injury, this Colts team would be as bad as the one that drafted Luck.
On top of protecting Luck in the passing game, a better offensive line could open up holes for the run game and keep all of the pressure from being on Lucks shoulders.
The Colts gave up a first-round pick for Trent Richardson and a better offensive line may make him more effective as well. The Colts don’t have a first-round pick since they sent it to the Browns for Richardson. Look for possible targets to be Travis Swanson, Zack Martin or David Yankey.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Quarterback
The Jaguars were one of the worst teams in football early in the season, but they came on late in the year and played much better. They have won four of their last seven games and at one point won four of five games.
The Jaguars have some good weapons on offense, especially if they keep Justin Blackmon when he comes back from suspension.
Pairing Blackmon with Cecil Shorts gives the Jaguars a very talented one-two punch at the receiver position for any quarterback who starts for them next year. The Jaguars drafted Luke Joeckel last year to be their left tackle of the future.
Gus Bradley will surely get the defense in shape and with the weapons on offense they should be able to make waves in that division if they can get a quarterback in place.
The most likely candidates are Derek Carr and Blake Brotles, unless they decide to go in a different direction in the first then they could go for Brett Hundley or Tajh Boyd. A dark horse for the second round would be Eastern Illinois quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Tennessee Titans: Offensive Tackle
The Titans had one of the best pairs of offensive tackles in the league a few years ago, but they have fallen off quite a bit this year.
Michael Roos and David Stewart aren’t playing as well this year and will be free agents in 2015 and 2014. They need to get younger at the position and get some new talent in there to help keep Jake Locker upright and healthy.
Locker hasn’t been able to stay healthy and if he keeps getting hit then the Titans won’t ever get to where they want to be. On top of that, the Titans seem to be moving on from Chris Johnson and they will need the offensive line to open up holes for whoever the new running back is.
The Titans have weapons on offense at the receiver position and if they can keep Locker upright, then the offense should be good. Some options for the Titans should be Cameron Erving, Greg Robinson and Taylor Lewan.