Well boys its back and its time for the original division thread to again be brought back. With a division full of teams that all could potentially win it(well..except Jacksonville). We have a week long offseason to look forward too! Lets get to the teams:



Indianapolis Colts

2010 record: 10-6 *Division Champs*

Anthony Castonzo, LT, Boston College
Ben Ijalana, OG, Villanova
Drake Nevis, DT, LSU
Delone Carter, RB, Syracuse
Chris Rucker, CB, Michigan State

Colts got, imo, a great OT on a team that desperately needed help in the OL. The offense drives this team and an OT can help them out tremendously. Unfortunately, it is a position that takes time and having lost an offseason it maybe asking a lot for Castonzo and Ijalana to make huge impacts this season, especially early on. But Polian has been known to draft well(ldo) so I won't count it out.

Manning's contract is a major thing for the Colts to look at. How much and for how long? We all know its going to be a big one. That will definitely be interesting.

Colts said goodbye to Bob Sanders, not that its a huge deal but as a fan of an opposing team knowing that he won't be suiting up(I guess we kinda knew that already) is a relief.

I'll let our resident Colts fans expand on this. But they are the guys at the top, they are the ones the rest of the division is looking up at.

Indy's Cap situation: 115.5 million dollars. Includes Manning's Franchise tag.



Jacksonville Jaguars

2010 record: 8-8

Blaine Gabbert, QB, Missouri
Will Rackley, G, Lehigh
Cecil Shorts, WR, Mount Union
Chris Prosinski, FS, Wyoming
Rod Issac, CB, Middle Tennessee State

The team that has been rebuilding for 2 years is continuing it after a 3rd draft from Gene Smith. This again will be a rebuilding year. The Jaguars will be forced to spend being so far under the salary floor. So that may put some kind of false hope into fans but nonetheless it will likely mean just poor 1 or 2 year contracts to vets.

With that said, going in 2011 the Jaguars will be looking towards the future. And who will be leading that is Blaine Gabbert. I personally am not crazy about the pick but hopefully Blaine turns out to be the QB that this team has been looking for. Garrard has been league average, which is fine, but for this team to take that next step it is necessary to have the guy to go to that next level. Again...unfortunately, not having an offseason will really hurt Gabbert but there is no rush to get him going. Not having Mike Sims-Walker will likely effect the passing game in some capacity. But if Dillard can get on the field it may not be a huge deal. Mike Thomas showed a lot last season.

The defense is still laughable. I guess there can be hope that Nmandi gets confused and signs a contract to the Jaguars but lets be honest, thats not happening. The secondary will still fail hard and the Jaguars will have to lean on Knighton and Alualu to anchor the defense and the offense to put up big numbers. Please...MoJoD be healthy and that knee not be an issue.

Salary Cap #: $78.1 million



Houston Texans

2010 record: 6-10

J.J. Watt, DE, Wisconsin
Brooks Reed, OLB, Arizona
Brandon Harris, CB Miami(FL)
Rashad Carmichael, CB, Virginia Tech
Shiloh Keo, S, Idaho
T.J. Yates, QB, North Carolina
Derek Newton, OT, Arkansas State
Cheta Ozougwu, OLB, Rice

Schaub put out an entire 16 game season last year. Thats two years in a row and in those two years its hard to argue against what Shaub has done. Over the past two seasons its arguable that Schaub has been on a tier as high as Manning. Not quite but he is right there. He has done it with fantasy style numbers but impressive nonetheless.

Though Ben Tate was selected last year the Texans had the #1 runner in the league last season in Arian Foster. That could be a very tough 1-2 combo if Tate can help spell Foster in the upcoming season.

The question with the Texans though is not their offense. Well maybe Duane Brown. But the defense. To say the defense was bad last season is an understatement. Having lost their starting CB from '09 to free agency the Texans gave up more yards through the air than any other team in the NFL. The Texans tried to give Mario Williams a solid bookend with JJ Watt. Brooks Reed and Harris could be impactful for the Texans. DE is a position that can help due to talent so the offseason may not be as impactful but has to be looked at anyway.

Texans could be a darkhorse to take the division as no team looks extremely strong today. If the defense shows any signs of improvement and they can INTERCEPT IT instead of KNOCKING IT DOWN on Hail Mary's...maybe they can win their first AFCS Championship.

Salary Cap #'s: $118.4 million



Tennessee Titans

2010 record: 6-10

Jake Locker, QB, Washington
Akeem Ayers, OLB, UCLA
Jurrell Casey, DT, USC
Colin McCarthy, ILB, Miami(FL)
Jamie Harper, RB, Clemson
Karl Klug, DE, Iowa
Byron Stingily, OT, Louisville
Zach Clayton, DT, Auburn
Tommie Campbell, S, California(PA...D2!!!!!! FROM MY CONFERENCE!!)

A team that has parted with its head coach and starting QB. Bud Adams has had a busy offseason even without free agency. Titans will go into the season with Kerry Collins(retired) and Jake Locker. Having lost the offseason(redundancy) it is going to be asking a lot if the Titans expect Locker to be a factor this season. A signing like Hasselbeck or McNabb could be beneficial for the Titans.

Defensively the Titans struggled against the pass as teams gameplanned to attack that. As well as offensively the pass game wasn't much either. I don't see Randy resigning with the Titans but that maybe a good thing. The rush game wasn't as effective as they had wanted either. It was about league average. Though a lot of that can likely be attributed to the putrid passing game.

If Kenny Britt can somehow keep himself out of trouble and Michael Roos can go back to his form from a couple of years ago the offense could show some sparks with a tremendous athlete like CJ2K in the backfield. I'll let some other Titan fans expand as I'm sure there is more to say. Jake Locker is sure to be a topic of discussion for years to come. The Gabbert vs Locker debates should be fun.

Cap #'s: $107.4 million



Here is the full schedule for the Colts' 2011-2012 season:

Jacksonville Jaguars 2011-12 Schedule:

Houston Texans 2011-12 Schedule:

Tennessee Titans 2011-12 Schedule:

This is most definitely the earliest that we've started the thread. But seeing as I'm sure we can all go with this "offseason" period together and see how the division turns out. OP's for stuff like this get dated anyway so not a big deal imo.

I know that Jacksonville has one national preseason game. I'm excited to see Gabbert on the field but I am going to relax on my expectations understanding that missing this offseason is going to be an issue.

This is going to be a crazy season for this division. Colts showed some ****** in their armor last season. Though I fully expect another 12 win season rebound. Though the Manning surgery has to wave some flags. That is going to be interesting this preseason.

Nope, gotta grab Hasselbeck or make so with just Locker

He retired...wow...lol. I missed that. That's what I get for looking at contract info. Searching through 3 other teams I was bound to make a few mistakes. I'll change that so that its fixed.

Nice OP

Houston reallllllllly, reallllllly needs to sign Nnamdi somehow. They aren't an elite cover corner away from being ok on defense but it sure would help. Their defense needs to at least be below average to compete. Also surely this is Kubiak's last year if they fail, right? Right?

how are the texans gonna free up $20m per year for him?

OLEDOIT

solid OP but

nah, it's definitely not

yea chuckled at that

Schaub had flashes of late game heroics, but he also backed those up with some LOL chokes

nice job needle, i always love your posts.

However, Colts go 13-3 and win the superbowl

colts win division at 12-4 roll dice in playoffs hoping GOAT will GOAT the supporting cast through. Andre Johnson continues to beastmode and make Schaub look better than he is.

Schaub:1157 attempts, 65.8 comp%, 9140 yards, 2.3int%, 7.9 y/a, 7.2 any/a, 4.7 sack%
Manning:1250 attempts, 67.4 comp%, 9200 yards, 2.6int%, 7.4 y/a, 7.0 any/a, 2.0 sack%

I mean I guess you can say "lol" and "nah it's definitely not" but the numbers are there to back it up. If you want to say that Manning's supporting cast has been worse or that you just think Schaub is some tier 3 QB in the NFL fine. But unfortunately the numbers pretty much show Schaub in an extremely good light.

Numbers lie.

Schaub is quite good though.

i mean if your argument is they're on the same level from a purely statistical standpoint, sure, i can't argue with that. schaub has also had the benefit of playing with better offensive talent around him over the last 2 years than manning had maybe in his entire career

Manning still has him in # of Hatians though.

anybody excited about any of their UDFAs?

I was kinda pleased with T. Tolliver and then the Asomugha news broke and I got distracted.

Really what are the chances Nnamdi goes to Houston? Is it good? I guess they could break the bank fo rhim.

yea we can money whip him, but he might think he has a better chance to win elsewhere

Not technically an UDFA, but the Colts signed Nate Davis, the former Ball State QB. He's not Peyton, but he's not Painter either.

I wish he got a shot in San Fran. I don't think I know more than Samurai Mike but man...that guy may have saved his job.

Jaguars UDFA's. Binn was all Big East and could be a Wilford kind of WR. He'll definitely have a shot. Riddle is the one that I am interested in, could end up on the practice squad. As could Rutland. Saunders could be the Jaguars punter if Podlesh isn't resigned.

@Jay_Glazer
Jay Glazer
RT @SuperEARLII: @AdamSchefter @alexmarvez @blekas @CoachBillick @Jay_Glazer Whats the interest out there for poslusny?>He'll sign w Jags

Thought you'd like to know, Needle.

Ohh thanks. I think he definitely has a spot on the Jags.

wouldn't have mattered. singeltary probably would have been fired even with a playoff appearance