By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

There are a lot things to love about Florida: weather, beaches, plenty of activities to keep you busy.

Coincidentally, a majority of those positives can easily turn into negatives. (Seriously, what kind of masochist enjoys visiting Orlando in July.)

You can go ahead and add Florida’s three NFL teams under both categories. They’ve all had their struggles over the past decade or so, but there’s good reason to think better days are on the horizon.

All three teams had high expectations entering last season. Miami and Jacksonville were both thought of as playoff contenders; to a point some people looked at them to be dark horses to win their respective divisions.

Tampa wasn’t exactly looked at to be a contender, but the expectation for drastic improvement upon their previous season certainly was there.

Two of the teams kind of hit their mark. One, not so much. Jacksonville had the type of season that would’ve made someone like Kelly Anne Conway want to pat the whole organization on the head and say, “Shhh. Mama knows. Mama knows.”

To compare the Jaguars’ season to a dumpster fire would be doing a disservice to dumpster fires everywhere. Blake Bortles is going to get a majority of the blame and he certainly deserves the lion’s share of it, but he was far from the only player that underachieved.

However, I do like the fact they brought in Tom Coughlin and Jacksonville does have some young talent to go with the free agents they’ve brought in.

Those are a few of the things for Jaguar fans to like about this team. Unfortunately, for those same fans, at the risk of beating a dead horse, picking it up off the ground and body slamming it as if I was running for political office in Montana, it’s all going to depend on Bortles. Good luck.

Miami did at least make it to the playoffs, although it wasn’t by much. About halfway through last season I wrote about Tannehill’s struggles, only to have him immediate follow my article and put together the best stretch of his career.

The defense has been better than perceived and as long as Adam Gase doesn’t wait until Week 5 or 6 to realize Jay Ajayi is on his team, the Dolphins have the making of a team that could be fun to watch for the next few years.

Tampa didn’t make the playoffs last year, but you could see the potential. Jameis Winston is coming into his third season and is going to have enough offensive talent around him that he could probably throw left handed and still put up All-Pro numbers.

Before the season began I was extremely critical when Tampa fired Lovie Smith and promoted Dirk Koetter. It’s only been one year, but so far so good. Out of all three teams in the Sunshine State, the Buccaneers probably have the brightest future, as it stands right now.

When it comes to professional football the state of Florida hasn’t had much to cheer about, on any type of consistent basis. If things continue to progress as they should, both Miami and Tampa Bay will bring a little more joy to their respective fan bases over the next few years. They are certainly on the right path to get there.

As for Jacksonville….well, I guess Meatloaf was right when he sang Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.

Sorry Jacksonville fans, I just don’t see it happening.