AFC South

• 1. Introduction

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  The AFC South came into existence in 2002 as a product of arithmetic. The NFL had grown to 32 teams, which meant eight divisions of four, and a new map had to be drawn. From that redrawing emerged one of professional football's most peculiar divisions: four franchises that had never played together before, assembled from three different conferences, with one of them not even having existed yet. The questions that follow from that unusual origin are more interesting than they first appear. How does a division built from spare parts develop an identity? Which team seized it first? And why, two decades on, does this division still have the longest active drought without a Super Bowl champion?

• 2. A Division Assembled from Parts

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  Before the 2002 realignment, the four franchises that became the AFC South were scattered across different corners of the conference. The Indianapolis Colts had spent years in the AFC East. The Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars had both been members of the AFC Central. The Houston Texans had not yet played a single game. At the time the division was formed, none of its four members had played more than eighteen seasons in their current cities, a fact that made it the NFL's "newest" division in more than a formal sense. The Colts had left Baltimore at the end of the 1983 season, carrying their history across Indiana. The Jaguars were a relatively young franchise that had only begun play in 1995. The Titans had been the Houston Oilers, based in that city until 1996, when they relocated and eventually settled in Tennessee. Despite this scattered past, Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Jacksonville had each won multiple division titles and wild card berths before the realignment shuffled their addresses.

• 3. The Colts' Dominant Run

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  Tennessee won the AFC South's first title in 2002, its inaugural season, and advanced to the AFC Championship game. After that, the Indianapolis Colts ran the division for the better part of a decade. For five consecutive years beginning in 2003, the Colts claimed the division crown. The peak of that run came in the 2006 season, when Indianapolis finished 12-4 and won the Super Bowl. That Super Bowl XLI victory remains the only Super Bowl championship the AFC South has ever produced. The Colts also set a remarkable standard in 2007: the AFC South that year posted a combined 42-22 record, a .656 winning percentage that set the record for the best division record in NFL history at the time. The previous mark had been held by the 1975 AFC Central at .643. Tennessee ended Indianapolis's streak in 2008 by winning the division, but the Colts answered in 2009, capturing their sixth division title in Week 12 with a win over Houston and a simultaneous Jacksonville loss to San Francisco.

• 4. Houston Arrives

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  For their first nine seasons, the Texans finished last or near the bottom of the division. Their 2011 season changed that. Houston clinched a playoff berth in Week 14 with their own 20-19 win over Cincinnati and an assist from New Orleans, which beat Tennessee 22-17 on the same day. It was the first postseason appearance in franchise history. The Texans then won their first playoff game, beating the Cincinnati Bengals 31-10, before losing to the Baltimore Ravens 20-13 in the Divisional round. Houston repeated as AFC South champions in 2012, again beating Cincinnati in the playoffs 19-13, before losing to New England 41-28. The Texans went on to win the division title again in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019, accumulating six division titles as members of the AFC South. Their most striking 2019 result came in the Divisional round, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 51-31 after winning the Wild Card game against the Buffalo Bills.

• 5. The Super Bowl Drought

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  The AFC South owns the longest active Super Bowl victory drought of any division in the NFL. Since the Colts won Super Bowl XLI in the 2006 season, at least one team from each of the other seven divisions has won one of the following eighteen Super Bowls. Between 2009 and 2015 alone, seven divisions each claimed a Super Bowl title. The AFC South went without. The Colts came closest in the 2009 season, reaching Super Bowl XLIV, where they lost to the New Orleans Saints 31-17. The AFC South is also the only division in the NFL with more than one franchise that has never appeared in a Super Bowl: both the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans have never played in the championship game. The Jaguars have a career playoff record of 8-8 across their time in the AFC South. The Texans hold a 6-8 playoff record as members of the division. Jacksonville did win the division in 2017, their first title since joining the AFC South, after a Titans loss to the Rams in Week 16 clinched it.

• 6. Records Across Four Franchises

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  The four franchises carry starkly different histories into each season. The Colts, counted only for their time as members of the AFC South, hold 14 division titles and have appeared in four Super Bowls, winning two. Across their full franchise history, including years in a different conference and a different city, they claim 16 division titles, 29 playoff berths, and three NFL or AFL championships. The Titans, playing as the Houston Oilers before their relocation, won two AFL championships and reached a Super Bowl as Tennessee, losing Super Bowl XXXIV. Their overall franchise record stands at 480-526-6, with a 17-23 playoff mark. The Jaguars, who have only existed since 1995, hold a 210-286-0 record and that 8-8 playoff line. The Texans, the youngest of the four, carry a 169-214-1 record and a 6-8 playoff record through their first years in the league. One distinction the division shares as a whole: every one of its four member teams has hosted a Super Bowl in their home stadium, making the AFC South the only division in the NFL with that distinction.