AFC South stock up, down: Will Anderson’s promising debut, Titans are a mess

The Tennessee Titans had a season opener to forget while the Indianapolis Colts showed that the Jacksonville Jaguars might not run away with the division title as easily as everyone assumed during the offseason. Oh, and a first-round pick performed in his first NFL game for the Houston Texans.

Here's whose stock is up and down in the AFC South:

Stock Up

Will Anderson, DE, Houston Texans: In his NFL debut, Anderson looked exactly like the player he was at Alabama, wreaking havoc in the backfield and finding ways to get to the quarterback. He finished with six tackles, six pressures, three hurries, two QB hits, a tackle for loss and a sack, per Pro Football Focus.

Anderson’s six pressures were the most by a rookie edge-rusher in a season opener since San Francisco's Nick Bosa and Jacksonville's Josh Allen in 2019, and his six defensive stops were tied for the most by a rookie edge-rusher in Week 1 since 2016, per NextGen Stats. He also tied for the fourth-best pass-rush win rate in Week 1 (33.3 percent).

Nick Folk, kicker, Tennessee Titans: Seemingly the only thing that went right for the Titans in Sunday’s 16-15 season-opening loss to the New Orleans Saints was Folk’s performance. The 16-year veteran made all five of his field goal attempts, including a 50-yarder on his first kick as a Titan.

Tennessee has had one of the more frustratingly inconsistent kicking situations over the last four seasons, and Folk might finally be an answered prayer for a team that ranks last in the NFL in made field goals (74), field goal attempts (102) and field goal percentage (72.5) since 2019. The Titans are also one of three teams with a combined field goal percentage below 80 during that same stretch.

Calvin Ridley, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars: After 686 days of not playing football, Ridley showed no signs of rust as he hauled in eight receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown in Jacksonville’s 31-21 win over the Indianapolis Colts. He’s just the fifth receiver to have 100 or more yards in a game with Trevor Lawrence as the starting QB, and Lawrence had a 131.1 passer rating when targeting Ridley on Sunday.

Ridley led all Jags WRs with 11 targets and 12.6 yards per reception, and 85.7 percent of his offensive snaps come out wide, where he had his most success with the Atlanta Falcons. His emergence limited last year’s leading receiver Christian Kirk to one reception for nine yards on two targets. Ridley is the kind of weapon who could help Lawrence get to the next level of his development.

Stock Down

Ryan Tannehill, QB, Tennessee Titans: At this rate, Tannehill might not even make it to the bye in Week 7. The 35-year-old QB had arguably his worst performance as a Titan. His 47.1 completion percentage and 28.8 passer rating were the worst marks of his Titans tenure, and his three interceptions were the second-most he’s thrown in a game since taking over as Tennessee’s starter during the 2019 season.

The full blame, however, doesn’t rest entirely on Tannehill’s shoulders. The offensive play calls were suspect at times, and the Titans clearly tried to force-feed DeAndre Hopkins a little too much — something the Saints defensive backs keyed in on early.

Indianapolis Colts running backs: Perhaps Jonathan Taylor isn’t so replaceable after all? Of Indianapolis’ 65 rushing yards in Sunday’s 31-21 loss to the Jaguars, rookie QB Anthony Richardson accounted for 40 of them. Deon Jackson, Jake Funk and Evan Hull combined to average 1.56 yards per carry on 16 carries (25 yards), forcing Richardson to throw it 37 times in his NFL debut.

While the No. 4 overall pick is athletically gifted enough to mask some deficiencies in the run game, it’s unreasonable to expect him to lead the team in rushing each game while accounting for 60 percent or more of the team’s rushing yards. The Colts would be wise to get Kareem Hunt back in the building and pay him whatever he wants.

Houston Texans offensive line: The Texans invested heavily in their offensive line over the offseason to protect QB C.J. Stroud (to the tune of $118 million in guaranteed money), but the 21-year-old rookie was sacked five times in Sunday’s 25-9 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and was seemingly under duress the entire game.

The Ravens pressured Stroud 30 times, hurried him 19 times and hit him six times, per PFF. Twenty percent of Baltimore’s pressures turned into sacks, and Stroud was forced to scramble four times to avoid the pass-rush. Stroud also tied for the ninth-shortest time to throw (2.67 seconds), per NextGen Stats.