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Watson or Fournette? Top rookie a great debate with AFC South awards

The Jacksonville Jaguars won the AFC South and dominated our postseason awards, but our voters were split: Deshaun Watson or Leonard Fournette for rookie of the year? Here's how NFL Nation AFC South reporters Sarah Barshop (Texans), Michael DiRocco (Jaguars), Mike Wells (Colts) and Cameron Wolfe (Titans) voted for their division awards:

Coach of the year: Doug Marrone, Jaguars

Marrone took a franchise that had won just 17 games from 2012-16 and guided the Jaguars to 10 victories and the first division title since 1999. He did it with most of the players from last year's 3-13 team, too (16 of the 22 starters). All season long, players have talked about how Marrone changed the culture inside the building by making winning the top priority. That sounds strange, but former coach Gus Bradley's philosophy was to emphasize the process over the result; if players worked to be their best, victories would follow. Marrone also believed the team lacked some toughness, so he subjected his players to a mentally and physically exhausting training camp that they initially grumbled about -- until the season began with a 29-7 rout of Houston. The Jaguars beat seven teams by more than 20 points (no other team did that more than four times), led the NFL in rushing and pass defense, and finished second in scoring defense, takeaways and sacks. -- DiRocco

Offensive player of the year: DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Houston Texans

The Texans' season crashed after Watson suffered a torn ACL in early November, but Hopkins still put up eye-popping numbers. He led the NFL with 13 touchdowns catches and finished fourth with 1,378 receiving yards. His 91.8 receiving yards per game were second only to the Steelers' Antonio Brown. Hopkins did all this with Watson playing only seven games (six starts). Hopkins may have challenged for the NFL's receiving title if the rookie quarterback had not been injured. Hopkins' eight-catch, 224-yard performance in Watson's last game of the 2017 season showed their potential as a tandem. The good news for Hopkins is Watson should be back in 2018. Hopkins edged out Fournette, who was the consistent focal point of the AFC South champion Jaguars offense but didn't make the splash that Hopkins had this season. -- Wolfe

Rookie of the year: Deshaun Watson and Leonard Fournette

Watson was having a historic season before his knee injury during an early November practice. In seven games, six of which he started, Watson threw for 1,699 yards and 19 touchdowns. At the time of his injury, he was tied with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz for most touchdown passes in the NFL, and he was on pace to shatter the rookie record for TD passes. Although the Texans were just 3-3 in games that Watson started, Houston scored 71 combined points in two games, both losses, against the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. After Watson’s injury, the Texans went 1-8.

The Jaguars entered the season expecting to lean heavily on Fournette after deciding to go with quarterback Blake Bortles for at least another year. For most of the season, the Jaguars' offense went through Fournette, although he dealt with injuries down the stretch and his production dipped. Even though Fournette missed three games with injuries and a suspension, he still finished the season ranked eighth in rushing yards, second only to Kansas City's Kareem Hunt among rookies. Fournette finished the season with 268 carries for 1,040 yards and nine rushing touchdowns, and he had five games with at least 100 yards on the ground. -- Barshop

Defensive player of the year: Calais Campbell, DE, Jaguars

Campbell showed he was worth the four-year, $60 million contract the Jaguars gave him to leave the Arizona Cardinals by spearheading the NFL's second-best defense. Campbell finished second in the league in sacks with a career-high 14.5. This season was the first that Campbell reached double digits in sacks in his 10-year career. "You have to stay balanced and be aggressive with him if you expect to have a chance," an opposing offensive lineman said about Campbell in a recent ESPN story. "If you're leaning, he's already got you beat." The Colts and Texans felt Campbell's wrath more than any other teams in the league. He had six sacks in two games against the Texans and three against the Colts. Campbell's presence allowed for cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye, arguably the best cornerback duo in the league, to be aggressive in the secondary because they knew the quarterback wouldn't be able to hold the ball in the pocket for an extended period of time. Also making Campbell's season impressive is that he had his career year at the age of 31, when players are supposed to be on the decline. -- Wells