The history of the AFC South has a theme: when the Houston Texans are doing well, the Indianapolis Colts are terrible — and visa versa.
Although the Colts finished with a better record than Houston a season ago, their starting point in 2023 is identical. The Texans and Colts are turning to a rookie coach from a dominant NFC team to turn things around with a first-round quarterback.
According to Tyler Sullivan from CBS Sports, the Texans and Colts are both in the bottom of the conference, not just the division.
We head to the AFC South as we get to the bottom of these tiers. Neither the Houston Texans nor the Indianapolis Colts are expected to be competitive in 2023. Most important for these franchises is making sure that both of their top-five quarterbacks — C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson — get through their rookie seasons without any damage to their development and set up a foundation for the rest of their careers.
Stroud nor Richardson has officially been named their team’s Week 1 starter to this point, but it’s fair to expect both of these players getting starts relatively early this coming season. That may not result in winning football on Day 1, but so long as they show that they have the potential to be franchise quarterbacks, that’ll be a win for both of these teams heading into 2024.
The tier the two AFC South clubs was placed in was “rebuilding with a rookie QB,” the fifth tier on the list.
Houston has an opportunity to bury the Colts and finally stack winning streaks and series sweeps. Consider Indianapolis is 31-10-1 against the Texans all-time and also holds a 1-0 lead in postseason play. If the Texans can snap out of their rebuild faster than the Colts, Houston should be able to make the ledger look more respectable.
