Oh, it’s AFC South time Texans won it last season. Jags and Colts are up there and odds looking to push them this season. The Titans maybe they take a step forward as well with Will Levis taking the reins for his first full year as a starter. Our Evan Washburn was at Jags camp recently and talked with Trevor Lawrence about his big new contract. Obviously contract stuff and being here in Jacksonville.
We’re really excited just for this to be home for the future. I mean, more than anything, obviously the money is great. That’s exciting and very grateful for that. But just to have this solidified as home for even longer and to be able to keep building what we’re building here, I know our best days are yet or haven’t aren’t here yet, and our best days are to come.
So really excited for that.
And for me, it’s just I got the same job to do is to go win and to try to bring a Super Bowl here. And just because now I have a contract with it doesn’t change anything for me. Well, Pete Prisco thought their best days were going to be last season when he picked him to go to the Super Bowl in the AFC. Pete is here to WRAL. Everybody in this division including the Jags and Ryan Wilson.
This is kind of a juxtaposition here. Usually Ryan does something and you tear it apart like a mock draft. So fun I got to tear his apart later on later on in the show okay.
So let’s start with the Jags. Last year you picked them to win the AFC.
Their win total is eight and a half this season. What do you see from Jacksonville. Well as bad as they were a year ago they won nine games. And so the division is tougher. It’s going to be hard to win in that division for everybody across the board because there’s a lot of good young quarterbacks in that division.
But I think Jacksonville is going to be a better team than they were a year ago, but I’m not sure they’re going to win more games. I think their schedule is tough. Like I said, the division is tougher. So I have them winning nine games this year, nine eight as they rip through the schedule and you look at it, I mean, out of the gate you have four tough games right from the start.
I mean, you look at that, that’s a brutal way to start.
And if they can navigate through that at two and 2 or 3 and one, then I think they have the chance of a successful season. But they are a better football team this year than they were a year ago. And they’ve learned how to win and deal with bad problems. They didn’t know how to handle it.
Last year when things went bad.
They’re better, better, apt and capable of handling that. Now I’m not sure how they learned how to win when they lost all those games down the stretch to get to nine and eight. But I do agree with your other point, Pete. I think this is a much better football team, and the record may not reflect that. They may have the same nine and eight record.
And I went through your wins and losses to try to pick it apart. I don’t have a lot to push back on. Maybe they lose to the Dolphins in week one, or maybe they struggle against the Browns in week two.
If Deshaun Watson is healthy, but they could win those games easily, and then the only other two games that could come up with maybe they can beat the bears on the road in the middle of the season in a few weeks later, they play at Philly. But again those are road games against tough opponents.
We don’t know what those teams are going to look like in terms of where they are in their journey through the season, so 98 feels about right. I think you’re right. This is a better football team. I have questions about the wide receiver position after Christian Kirk. Brian Thomas Jr is a rookie and he’s a big play threat, but he’s still learning the position.
I think you saw him out there at camp and said as much to me. Gabe Davis is coming over from Buffalo. Where did they get him from him. Obviously they know what they have in Evan Ingram at tight end. But it all starts with Trevor Lawrence.
And as he mentioned to Evan there, he’s got all the money that he needs.
Now it’s a matter of going out there and playing week in and week out. Just of note Pete was also there that day. He made sure to let us know that he was at Jags camp, that Trevor would only talk to Evan. I don’t know what happened there.
I got Josh Allen, Josh Allen and he changed his name. He did change his name. That was actually a good one because he actually had a screensaver from a year ago from when I said they didn’t have a game wrecker on his phone the entire year, it said 41 game record. Look at you. So I told him he owes me some of that contract that he signed.
And did he agree to give you some of that? No, of course not. All right. We’re going to look at the Texans now. They won the division with ten wins last season.
But they added Stefon Diggs right now win total set at nine and a half. But you don’t know if Diggs is going to be good or bad for that team. What do you think. Well he wasn’t good for the bills in the last couple of years. And he wasn’t good on the football field the last ten games of the season last year.
If you go look at his numbers, they were below average, to be honest with you.
And being in Buffalo last week or Rochester when I talked to the bills, I can tell you they’re not too sad that he’s gone. And you know, look, he’s going on a one year deal. So he’s probably going to be on his best behavior with the Texans and try and get a long term contract. But he turns 31in November.
That’s old for an NFL wide receiver. So you got to be careful with that. I just don’t know how this team is going to handle being the hunted. You know last year they surprised a lot of people.
And C.
J. Stroud, you know, if he has the same type of season he had last year, he’s on his way to being truly special. But that’s a bit, you know, we don’t know if he can sometimes second year quarterbacks fall back a little bit. I don’t think he will. But I think this schedule is brutal this year.
You play the first place schedule. You play a tough division. I just think it’s going to be tough to navigate. I don’t see them getting past nine wins. I got them at nine, nine and eight.
Jenny and Chris, we heard Pete there mentioned he was in Rochester last week. The highlight of his trip to Rochester. Good old Ryan Wilson came to see him on Thursday and this is how we ended our trip together. Just because you know that Pete’s a solid person.
We sat on a park bench and we had some ice cream, and that’s a true story.
So you think about that. You got to eat food. That’s the first time that’s happened in over a year. No, it was good. That ice cream place is the best ice cream place anywhere.
What is it? Dairy. It’s a dairy. It’s unreal. All right.
Ryan will attest to it. It was the best week up. You milk the cow, and then they take that fantastic to the ice cream shop. We got another way. All right.
Ryan, do you agree with that? His take on the Texans. Oh, yeah.
I was so excited to talk about ice cream and Pete I forgot. So here’s the thing.
And I told Jack producer Jack this that nine and eight at ten and seven. Excuse me. No nine. Excuse me. They went ten and seven last year.
The same record as the Jaguars. I have a hard time seeing that. I understand what Pete is saying. And Stefon Diggs may not be the person he was in the previous seasons with Buffalo and the Minnesota before that. But they have Nico Collins, they have Tank Dell coming back off of injury.
They got Joe Mixon. He has been banged up so far. But he’s going to be helping that running game. The offensive line and the defense are going to be better. I’m not concerned about C.
J. Stroud. So I went through Pete’s wins and losses here. And look nine and eight feels a little low. I could get to 11 wins.
Maybe there’s two more wins out there.
Whether it’s week one. Pete has him losing at Indy. Maybe they can beat the Packers on the road. But again all the losses that I’m talking about are games that are on the road where it’s always tough to win.
But I think 11 wins feels a little closer to reality for me, especially after this team won ten games last year. But Pete points out tougher schedule. People are now coming after them. They’re not surprising people, but have a lot of faith in what Demeco Ryans is able to do. Last year.
So you’ve got the Texans and the Jags with nine wins. Pete. And spoiler alert, you don’t have the Colts or Titans at nine wins. Who do you have winning this division? Well I think the Texans will win the division.
Okay I do I think they’ll win the. They’ll find a way. But it’s going to be tight the entire season across the board. I think all this all the teams in this division are all better than they were a year ago, including the Colts, who hope to have a healthy Anthony Richardson this season. And I’ve heard some of our analysts, some of our betting analysts, they like the Colts to win this division.
They won nine games last season with a guy that you think is just a backup quarterback and Gardner Minshew. Well if Anthony Richardson stays on the field they’re clearly a better team because he’s a better quarterback than Gardner Minshew. But that’s a big if. I mean, it’s been a problem in his entire career. But more than that, this team hasn’t won the division.
I mean, you know, for all the talk about how great they’ve been drafting and good offensive lines and Chris Ballard to start, it’s time for them to win a division once in a while. And they haven’t done it under this regime.
So I do think it’s a big year for them from that standpoint. They have questions in the secondary, particularly at corner. I think they’ll be better than they’re going to be a better team than they were a year ago, but not not quite win as many games.
So I do think that they’re going to push for the division title. But I think in the end they’re going to win eight games. 2014 the last time they they won the division, has it been that long? Ten years now Ryan, what do you think? Yeah I think Pete’s right on with this one.
Eight, nine maybe nine and eight. They were nine eight last year with Gardner Minshew of course, after Anthony Richardson got hurt. But it comes down to they’re now second year quarterback former first round pick. They’re using kid gloves with him in terms of bringing him back from that shoulder injury. He only played a handful of snaps in the week one preseason game, missed some throws, perhaps rust.
Maybe it doesn’t matter. I’m not concerned about that. He did run the ball one time and got out of bounds, which is what he has to do.
He cannot take hits as Pete’s favorite player in this division. We’ll talk about in a second.
Took a couple of hits he shouldn’t have taken in that week one preseason game, but I think the Colts are probably right around 500. We’ll need some breaks to get above 500, but the questions that Pete pointed out are the same ones that I have. So your favorite player got to be Will Levis, right? Oh man. Well, it’s got to be I don’t have a favorite player.
I just think he’s going to be a star quarterback.
Okay. So they won six games last season. The total now six and a half. Which way are you going.
I have them going over but barely barely barely I think this team’s a year away. I think first year head coach I think he’s an impressive guy. Brian Callahan I think getting his father in there as the offensive line coach is big for that franchise. The left side is young. You have a rookie left tackle.
You have your second year guard. They signed a free agent center. They’re going to be better on the offensive line, but I think they might be a year away on the offensive line.
But I do think Will Levis now has weapons Calvin Ridley, he’s going to be able to get the ball to those guys. I think the ball gets out quicker.
He’s so much more comfortable with where he is as a quarterback in this offense. Do you think every team in this division is better than they were last year? I do, I do. I think this division is sneaky good and I think it, but I think they’re going to cannibalize each other. I think it’s going to be tough to win at the other guy’s spot, no matter where you’re playing.
So it’s going to be a tough division.
But I think they’ll win seven games and watch out for them a year from now. All right, Brian, Pete, I’ll give you credit. I thought you would have this team winning ten, 11, 12 games because of Will Levis. But I think you’re on to something.
And I think look, I went back and watched all his snaps, the handful of snaps he had in the week one preseason game. He’s better and I think he feels more comfortable. And you talk with him at camp a few weeks ago, and I think this offense is going to help him and the playmakers they’ve surrounded him with will help as well. He had no playmakers last year in the offensive line, stunk also JC Latham, their left tackle, the rookie they drafted at Alabama. He’s going to be special.
And when you pair him with Peter Skowronski, last year’s first round pick at guard, they’re going to be able to run the ball, which is also going to help Will Levis a lot.
The only thing is he’s got to quit taking these stupid hits. You can’t do it. It’s not sustainable. You’re going to get hurt otherwise.
I agree with everything you said. One quick note on the Titans on the defensive side of the ball. Denard Wilson, the defensive coordinator, is a future head coach in waiting. And everybody I talked t.
