CBS Sports: 3 Good Things, 3 Bad About Each AFC South Team

[HPF Bob]

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/af...for-each-team/

Houston Texans:

Three positives

1. They upgraded at quarterback

The 2015 Texans had some of the worst quarterback play in the league. Houston ranked 30th league wide in completion percentage, 29th in yards per attempt, and 24th in passer rating on the year. Brian Hoyer then completely melted down in their postseason loss to the Chiefs. They couldn't credibly bring him back as the starting QB and call themselves a playoff contender.

Pretty much anyone they brought in would be considered an upgrade, and Brock Osweiler is that. But more on him in a minute.

2. They gave their new quarterback a host of new weapons

The Texans basically had one high-level target last season: DeAndre Hopkins. That's it. He was targeted 192 times -- 98 more than his next closest teammate (Nate Washington). Expecting Osweiler to shine with only one target, no matter how good he is, would have been misguided. So Houston went out and got him a few more weapons to spread the ball to.

They drafted Notre Dame speedster Will Fuller in the first round.
They snagged Ohio State's Braxton Miller (arguably the most versatile offensive player in the draft) in the third.
And they gave Osweiler a significantly better running back than the Texans originally had in house by signing Lamar Miller away from the Dolphins.

That's how you set your quarterback up for success.

3. They still employ J.J. Watt.

Dude is pretty good.

Three negatives

1. They gave an unproven quarterback $72 million

Osweiler may be an upgrade over Hoyer, Ryan Mallett and Brandon Weeden, but we don't know much more about him than that. He has a track record that's exactly 305 passes long, and those 305 passes don't paint the picture of a star. Osweiler's 61.8 completion percentage from 2015 is below average for this era, and so is his 7.2 yards per attempt figure.

The Broncos went 5-2 in his seven starts, sure, but the defense also allowed 18.5 points per game in those seven starts. NFL teams over the last five years are 902-241 in games where the defense allows less than 20 points. That's good for a 0.789 winning percentage that is slightly better than Osweiler's 5-2 record. He basically won about as often as would be expected given his defense's performance. It's possible this contract works out, but it's also a sizable bet to make on a pretty big unknown.

2. They didn't upgrade the offensive line

Improving the weapons around Osweiler should help put him in position to succeed, but he also has to be upright long enough to deliver the ball. Houston's offensive line was a relative weakness last season, allowing 36 sacks and checking in with a below average Adjusted Sack Rate, per Football Outsiders.

The Texans then lost center Ben Jones and guard Brandon Brooks in free agency this offseason -- two players that could have been young stalwarts on their line over the next few years. (They're both 26 years old.)

Bringing Jeff Allen in from the Chiefs should help alleviate the loss of Brooks, but counting on rookie Nick Martin as the center could get dicey. And we're still not sure what they have in Xavier Su'a-Filo. There are just a lot of question marks on the line right now.

3. They lost their second franchise legend in as many years

This won't affect the Texans on the field, and as was the case last year with Andre Johnson, they were likely correct to cut ties with Arian Foster. Replacing Foster with Miller was a good move, just as shifting many of Johnson's targets to Hopkins was.

But that's two of the best players in franchise history walking out the door in consecutive years. For a franchise with a very short history, it's notable.

[HPF Bob]

Nothing earthshattering here. Mostly obvious stuff.

[Arky]

As far as the QB play goes, I'm expecting at least "average" this year .... Last year, Hoyer was supposed to give us "average" but it ended up less than that...

[Arky]

Video - SBR take on the AFC South TRT 6:32

Always interesting to hear "outside" takes on ones team/division..... Some good points made but I disagree that the AFC South will be a weak division this year - I speculate that they will at least improve to "average"....

Edit: Might be some technical difficulty with the link. Try later if it's not working......