{"id":648095,"date":"2026-01-02T12:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/648095\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T12:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:48:20","slug":"nfl-week-18-power-rankings-afc-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/648095\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 18 power rankings: AFC South"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are through 17 weeks of the 2025 NFL season. Each week, we\u2019ll monitor every team in the AFC South with an eye towards their ability to compete for the divisional crown. Here\u2019s how the four teams stack up after heading into week 18.<\/p>\n

4. Tennessee Titans (3-13)\"TennesseeTennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward (1) runs the ball during the third quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. Credit: \u00a9 Andrew Nelles \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve played their best ball as of late. Cam Ward is showing growth with his fellow rookies, wide receivers Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor. There\u2019s not much to play for in 2025, but the growth for the future is something to be excited about in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

3. Indianapolis Colts (8-8)\"NFL:Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor (28) runs the ball against the Atlanta Falcons during the NFL Berlin Game at Olympic Stadium. Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

After starting 7-1, they\u2019ve lost seven of their last eight, including six straight. It was a great start to the season, boosted by an easy first half of their schedule. Once Daniel Jones went out and the schedule toughened, they just weren\u2019t good enough. They\u2019re out of the playoff hunt and are left to consider their QB options for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2. Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4)\"TrevorJacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) celebrates his touchdown in the third quarter during a Monday Night NFL football game at EverBank Stadium, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. [Doug EngleFlorida Times-Union]<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve won eight of their last nine games, including seven straight. They\u2019re likely to win the AFC South with only the Tennessee Titans standing in their way for the divisional crown. They\u2019re still not the best team in the AFC South, as their only loss in their last nine games was one in which they blew a 16-point fourth-quarter lead to the Houston Texans and their backup QB, Davis Mills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. Houston Texans (11-5)\"\"Nov 2, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) drops to throw during the first half against the Denver Broncos at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sean Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Winners of eight straight and nine of their last 10 games. Houston may not win their division, but they are the hottest team in the NFL as their only loss in their last 10 games was to the current #1 seed Denver Broncos in a game in which starting QB C.J. Stroud was knocked out of the game with a concussion at the beginning of the second quarter and was replaced by Mills coming off the bench cold. The Texans still only lost that game by three points.<\/p>\n

Check out all of our NFL articles: https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/category\/nfl\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are through 17 weeks of the 2025 NFL season. Each week, we\u2019ll monitor every team in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[1466,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,5189],"class_list":{"0":"post-648095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-afc-south","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-power-rankings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115825587467958123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}