Bill O’Brien and Brian Flores are current favorites for head coaching vacancies for Jags and Texans

The Tennessee Titans are the only AFC South team in the playoffs. Head coach Mike Vrabel and his staff have kept the Titans atop the AFC South and even taken the franchise to the AFC Championship game two seasons ago.

The Indianapolis Colts fell short of the playoffs this season but head coach Frank Reich has the support of owner Jim Irsay and General Manager Chris Ballard. He has faced quite a bit of adversity during his time in Indianapolis but is well respected in the locker room and around the league as one of the most gifted offensive head coaches in the league. Another failure to reach the playoffs in 2022 could change things, but for now, he’s safe.

The Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans find themselves in entirely different scenarios. The Jaguars fired Urban Meyer before he could finish his first full season as head coach. There was very little good going for Jacksonville under Meyer’s tutelage and his off-field distractions took the focus away from the work that needed to be done and surely hurt his command over the locker room. Kicking players will get you fired too.

The rest of the AFC South should be pleased to learn that the current favorite to fill the vacant head coaching position is Bill O’Brien.

This is a fascinating turn of events, should O’Brien take over for the Jaguars. He famously flamed out in Houston. He is responsible for arguably the worst trade in modern NFL history — sending DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals for pennies on the dollar. His relationship with players was horrible, his control over the franchise proved to set the team back years, and now he is potentially scooting over to lead the franchise that has struggled most in the AFC South.

I suppose Christmas 2022 could come really early for fans in Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Houston.

Speaking of Houston, the name that has the most traction to this point as the future head coach is former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. This would widely be considered a good hire as Flores could help restore a Texans defense that has lost its identity due in part to age. With Davis Mills proving to be more capable than some might have originally predicted, adding Flores could help the Texans move on from the Deshaun Watson era.