INDIANAPOLIS — Jim Irsay ended up being right about the AFC South.

When Irsay looked at the division last March, a month before the NFL draft drastically changed the AFC South’s outlook, the Colts owner saw opportunity.

Even back then, when the Jacksonville Jaguars were widely seen as the division’s new behemoth, lording over the three other clubs in various states of rebuilding.

“I see opportunity in the division,” Irsay said at the owner’s meetings last year. “It’s not like we’re in Kansas City’s division or Philly’s division. … For instance, when we were in the Peyton (Manning) era, winning all those division titles back to back, you had such a dominant team, but I don’t see that right now, and it gives us opportunity.”

Irsay’s words proved prescient.

Everybody’s darling Jaguars shot out to an 8-3 start, then collapsed down the stretch, opening the door for the rest of the division, a group of teams nobody expected to be remotely in position to take advantage of a Jacksonville swoon.

Two teams ended up being there.

The two picking in the top five, coming off disastrous seasons. When Indianapolis played Houston at Lucas Oil in the season finale, the game was for a playoff berth, and a day later it turned out the prize was the AFC South title, by virtue of another Jacksonville loss.

Irsay was right about almost all of it.

Except that he rested his argument somewhat on the belief — a belief that was widely held by most NFL observers, to be sure — that the AFC South was one of the NFL’s thinner divisions.

Fast forward a year, to the start of an NFL scouting combine that saw three of the division’s teams make their annual combine appearance on Tuesday. The Colts are scheduled to speak Wednesday afternoon.

The AFC South is full of teams that look like they’re on the rise.

“Our division is in good hands right now,” Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said. “I think about where we are, obviously where Houston’s at, where Indy’s at, Tennessee’s the same way.”

The big reason for the about-face in AFC South perception is easy to see.

Indianapolis and Houston each hired talented head coaches in Shane Steichen and DeMeco Ryans, respectively, last year but the division suddenly looks wide-open because every one of the four teams has a young, promising quarterback who hasn’t reached his ceiling, offering the promise of much more than any of the four teams has shown so far.

“When you think about the young quarterbacks in the division, with the Colts, the Jags, the Titans and us, we all have really young quarterbacks who all have bright futures,” Ryans said. “It’s going to be a battle each and every time we play each other.”

Trevor Lawrence hasn’t reached his ceiling yet, but the former No. 1 pick is entrenched in Jacksonville. C.J. Stroud, the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, plays in Houston.

Anthony Richardson in Indianapolis and Will Levis in Tennessee have shown just enough to give their front offices hope.

“These are some young, athletic guys,” Pederson said. “The AFC South is in good hands when it comes to the quarterback position.”

And it’s the unknown of Richardson that has the rest of the division intrigued by the Colts.

Indianapolis had the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft for just 173 offensive snaps last season, and the Colts were still right there on Saturday night in the final week, coming up just a bit short against a Houston team that had its rookie quarterback.

“You see a coach who’s able to adapt, even though he lost his starting quarterback in Anthony Richardson,” Ryans said. “The backup comes in, (Gardner) Minshew does a really good job, and he’s able to sustain it through the entire year.”

The way the Colts head coach used the talent available to him has the rest of the AFC South’s attention.

“Coach Steichen did an outstanding job leading those guys, motivating those guys … (as a) play-caller, putting those guys in position to be successful,” Pederson said. “There was an enthusiasm in that stadium, a level of excitement that they needed.”

From the outside, the narrative on the AFC South does not match what its head coaches were saying on Tuesday at the Indianapolis Convention Center.

Stroud and the Texans, fresh off a surprise division title and a playoff win, have been anointed as the next big thing. The Colts are seen as a wild card. The Jaguars look like a team falling from great heights, and the Titans look like they’re at the start of a long rebuild with a new head coach.

Based on the recent history of the AFC South, best to write those opinions in pencil.

The narrative can change quickly.

“We have a premium pick, we have money to spend in free agency that we’ll spend on the right players,” Titans head coach Brian Callahan said. “We have a chance to get a lot of competition and a lot of good players in our building, and hopefully, we can play a brand of football that highlights all their strengths, gives you a chance to be competitive every week.”

What Callahan’s saying sounds foolhardy. A little too confident, given the challenges the Titans face after Mike Vrabel’s kingdom collapsed.

Then again, that’s what everybody was saying about the Colts and Texans at this time last year.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts have the attention of an AFC South on the rise