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The Jacksonville Jaguars were very busy in free agency. The rest of the AFC South... not so much.
Don’t get me wrong, our division rivals picked up some marquee players. But the flurry of activity in Jacksonville was unlike anything else in the AFC South and surpassed even our own expectations.
How did our division rivals fare in free agency? Who are the new opponents we can look forward to seeing twice a year? Let’s have a team-by-team look:
Tennessee Titans
The Titans re-signed guards Josh Kline and Quinton Spain, the former to a four-year, $26.5 million contract and the latter to a $527,000 tender. Behind Andrew Norwell and Justin Pugh, Kline was probably the best guard available. And keeping Spain was important as the team is relatively thin at guard right now. Defensive tackle DaQuan Jones also decided to stay.
From outside the organization, the Titans signed cornerback Malcolm Butler and running back Dion Lewis away from the New England Patriots — with Butler signing a $61 million contract ($30 million of which was guaranteed) and Lewis coming in at just under $20 million for four years.
Houston Texans
The Texans decided to use free agency to rebuild their secondary which was awful last season. They signed cornerback Aaron Colvin away from us on a four-year, $34 million contract and free safety Tyrann Mathieu away from the Arizona Cardinals for a one-year, $7 million deal. They grabbed guards Zach Fulton from the Kansas City Chiefs and Senio Kelemente from the New Orleans Saints and re-signed cornerback Johnathan Joseph to a two-year deal.
Indianapolis Colts
The least active of any AFC South team was probably the Colts, who signed just two free agents to multi-year deals. Defensive end Denico Autrey came over from the Oakland Raiders and tight end Eric Ebron is here on a two-year deal from the Detroit Lions.
Signing one-year deals were wide receiver Ryan Grant and guards Matt Slauson and Jack Mewhort.