Long And Suite Preview: The AFC

Can Peyton Manning lead the Broncos back atop the AFC?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

We're just gonna blow through these quickly - just post our picks for how each division will finish, what each team's record will be, and how the playoff seedings stack up. The heavy analysis as to how and why those things will come about will be in tomorrow's full-season preview. This is just quick and dirty picks. First will be each division's order of finish. The second section will have each team's record (and a pick for each team's respective over/under). The third section will be our top six teams.

Long And Suite Preview: The AFC South

Andrew Luck is the best quarterback in the division. But can he stay upright long enough for the Colts to take advantage?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

The AFC South was a joke last season. They had the worst cumulative record (24-40) of any division in football. In fact, it was the worst cumulative record of any division from any year since the 2008 NFC West (22-42).

It was a weird season. The Colts beat each of the three best teams in football (Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco), then lost to the Rams and Cardinals by a combined 59 points. The Texans went 2-14, but five of those losses came by three points or less, and they under-performed their expected record (based on point differential) by a full two wins. The Jaguars went 4-12, but three of those wins came against the other crap teams in the division (two against Houston, one against Tennessee), and the other came against Cleveland. And none of the wins were by more than a touchdown. They lost their first eight games by an average of 22.5 points. That's some world-class suck. The Titans were your generic average team. They beat the crap teams and lost to the good teams. The only really surprising result was beating the Chargers.

The division should improve this year top to bottom. The two divisions they played last year were the AFC West and NFC West, far and away the two best divisions in football. The four teams in the AFC South played the four hardest schedules in the AFC (Houston played the hardest, then Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and Tennessee). This year, they'll play the NFC East (which could under-whelm again), and AFC North (ditto), offering an easier path towards respectability.

Long and Suite Preview: The AFC South

Was it Andrew Luck, or simply dumb luck that got Indianapolis into the playoffs last season?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

The South was a top-heavy division in 2012, with both Houston and Indianapolis qualifying for the postseason and Tennessee and Jacksonville largely serving as punchlines for some joke about stagnant franchises with no real support.

Despite all this, the top three spots in the South appear to be up for grabs in 2013. Indianapolis rode rookie quarterback Andrew Luck to a Wild Card berth last year, but are the Colts as good as their 11-5 record says, or are they a team that allowed 30 more points than they scored (yes, they are) and caught a few breaks along the way?

Houston again had one of the league's most balanced offenses and best defenses, but the Texans do have concerns in the secondary. Can newly signed safety Ed Reed stay healthy and play like the ball-hawk he was two or three years ago, or will he be an unexpected downgrade from the underrated and now departed Glover Quin?

Then there's Tennessee, a team with talent at the skill positions and a suddenly promising offensive line. A below average defense and inconsistent play from quarterback Jake Locker doomed the Titans in 2012, but we've seen quick defensive turnarounds in this division before, and Locker did show flashes in his first full season as a starter.

The Jaguars… Well, uh…. They're still in Jacksonville.