Caesars – New Jersey
May 4, 2022
UFC Odds – UFC 274: Oliveira vs. Gaethje
May 5, 2022
The AFC South has been dominated by the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans for the last seven seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars sprinkling in the franchise’s lone title win back in 2017. The one team missing from the bunch is the Indianapolis Colts who haven’t held division bragging rights since 2014. SugarHouse Sportsbook expects the drought to end this year with Frank Reich’s squad currently installed the -110 favorites to lock down the division title and qualify for the playoffs (-162) after shockingly spitting the bit in Week 18 a season ago. This division once again looks to be a two-horse race between the Colts and Titz on paper, but I wouldn’t be the least bit shocked if a Jags squad with loads of talent on both sides of the ball finds a way to put it all together with a now competent coaching staff looking upon their every move. This division isn’t nearly as cut and dry as the current futures odds suggest!
AFC South Odds at SugarHouse Sportsbook
Indianapolis Colts -110
Tennessee Titans +150
Jacksonville Jaguars +650
Houston Texans +2500
Indianapolis Colts -110
Since Andrew Luck shockingly hung up his cleats in the preseason of 2019, the Colts have had major issues replacing his talent under center. While Matt Ryan is in the tail end of an extended 14-year NFL career, he’s the best option the offense has had in three seasons. The Carson Wentz experiment failed miserably last year even with Indy owners of the second best rushing attack in the league. While some of that falls on the shoulders of a mediocre pass catching corps, it wasn’t the guys catching the balls committing awful turnovers at the worst possible times. With Ryan in the mix, the Falcons now have a QB1 that it can depend on to come through when it matters most. But does Indy have the receiving talent to make it count? Cincinnati WR Alec Pierce was brought in to bring balance to a receiving corps that saw Michael Pittman Jr. take a huge step in his sophomore campaign with over 1,000 receiving yards and seven overall touchdowns.
Jonathan Taylor is currently the consensus No. 1 draft pick for the 2022-23 season in fantasy football circles when going by ADP. How could he not be after erupting for over 1,800 yards and a whopping 18 rushing touchdowns?! If in the ball park of that production type once again, the offense will ascend into the upper echelon after being nothing but a run of the mill unit under Wentz’s watch. But what about the defense; especially with Matt Eberflus now calling the shots in Chicago? Linemakers don’t look to be too concerned with the Colts owners of the division’s highest season win total odds (9.5) and a -175 choice to qualify for the postseason. This team’s alternated double-digit win tallies every other season since Reich took over the reins back in 2018. It only won nine games a season ago. Look for the trend to continue this year!
Jacksonville Jaguars +650
Call me crazy, but I absolutely love the talent the Jaguars bring to the gridiron and plan to bank on it by backing them on the NFL odds routinely over the course of the regular season. The Urban Meyer catastrophe was one of epic proportions. The idea of it panning out was doomed from the word go! That being said, Jacksonville was by no means as bad as its 3-14 SU and 5-12 ATS records indicated. This is a team that’s now had the No. 1 pick in each of the last two drafts. Heads will roll if it mosies up to the podium first in 2023! To make sure that doesn’t occur,
upper management started wheeling and dealing right when the offseason began. It franchise tagged OT Cam Robinson and inked former Washington Commander G Brandon Scherff in free agency. Then it snagged Kentucky C Luke Fortner in the draft with the first pick of the third round. I don’t know about you, but I want to see Trevor Lawrence excel at the NFL level. It looks like new GM Trent Baalke does as well as concerted an effort the front office made to dramatically change the futility of the O-Line.
The defense received a heavy dose of uber talent as well with the drafting of Travon Walker and Devin Lloyd in the first round. Those two paired with the up and coming Josh Allen should at the very least allow for Jacksonville to field a serviceable stop unit at some point this season. There’s still however plenty of work to be done on that side of the ball with the unit forcing the fewest turnovers and ranking out amongst the back half of the league in most pertinent defensive stat categories. Even so, don’t let last year’s results skew your outlook for this team moving forward. It has the talent on hand to compete in a division void of any world beaters!
