Which NFL Team Is Set to Make the Biggest Leap in 2016?

It's late August, when every fan is optimistic about how their team may shake out. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, only 12 of the NFL's 32 franchises are awarded the opportunity to compete in the playoffs.

If you're scanning the league for teams that can go from the bottom half of that group of 20 to making a postseason appearance, some names clearly stick out. We won't count the Dallas Cowboys, who went 12-4 overall in 2014 and 3-1 last year when Tony Romo was the starting quarterback. It's too easy of an argument to make.

Everyone on Earth expects the Cowboys to contend for a playoff spot this season, while other teams in the top five still have questionable projections. Of those four other top-five teams—franchises that have the opportunity to do a 180 in one season like the Washington Redskins did last year—the Jacksonville Jaguars have to have the lead on paper.

You can go unit-by-unit explaining how and why the squad will take the right steps in 2016.

At quarterback, 24-year-old Blake Bortles, is ready for his third year after improving from a 69.5 passer rating in his rookie year to 88.2 in 2015, middle of the pack for an NFL starter. Elsewhere in the backfield, T.J. Yeldon gets a partner in the running back committee as Chris Ivory, who finished fifth in the NFL in rushing last year, signed with the team as a free agent.

Receiver Allen Robinson, who just turned 23 years old, led the NFL in touchdown receptions last season while averaging the most yards per reception of any target with more than 50 catches in 2015. It's hard to pin down exactly how offensive lines will shake out in-season, but former second overall pick Luke Joeckel will at least have an ongoing competition with Kelvin Beachum: The former Pittsburgh Steeler is playing left tackle reps in the preseason, too.

If Beachum starts as their blindside bookend, expect Joeckel to start at guard, according to Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley. On every level of the offense, there's hope for progress.

With all of that being said, it's the defensive side of the ball that looks different on the depth chart. First and foremost, the former third-overall pick, Dante Fowler, is back playing in the preseason after missing his entire rookie year due to a spring knee injury.

Fowler is a hybrid edge defender in Bradley's 4-3 under-heavy scheme. He may not be a 10-sack force coming out of the gate, but he should improve a unit that only had 36 sacks last year, tied in the 20th slot in last year's rankings, with more than 10 of those sacks coming from off the ball linebackers and defensive backs.

Fowler will sometimes play next to Malik Jackson on the defensive line, after Jackson parlayed a big Super Bowl effort to a move from Denver to northern Florida. Jackson plays 3-technique, the "pass-rushing" defensive tackle role, and has big promises to keep with his $90 million price tag.

They also seem to have two rookie contributors. Their first-round pick, cornerback Jalen Ramsey, is already a starter, while their second-round pick, linebacker Myles Jack, looks to play a situational role that flexes between what you'd think a strong safety and a Tampa 2 Mike linebacker lovechild would play.

For the majority of other teams, signing safety Tashaun Gipson, who made a Pro Bowl in 2014, and cornerback Prince Amukamara, a former first-round pick who has started the last four years with the New York Giants, would have been their team's biggest story heading into the regular season, but it's way down the list in Jacksonville, the squad that by all accounts has "won the offseason."

After the Jaguars, the next best team in terms of an impressive offseason resume is the Tennessee Titans, the Jaguars' in-division rival who fell two games behind them in the AFC South standings with a 3-13 record in 2015.

The Titans' run offense should be violent this year with the addition of DeMarco Murray, the NFL's rushing leader in 2014, and Derrick Henry, the Heisman Trophy Award winner for the 2015 college football season, to their backfield.

They also used their first-round pick on Jack Conklin, an offensive tackle from Michigan State who is holding his own in the preseason, which created a three-way battle for their only available offensive line spot, a guard slot, between second-year third-round pick Jeremiah Poutasi, second-year undrafted free agent Quinton Spain and rookie sixth-round pick Sebastian Tretola.

In the passing game, Marcus Mariota should take a step in the right direction in his second season in the NFL, while Delanie Walker is one of the best pass-catching tight ends in football. Tennessee has also found a gem in Tajae Sharpe, a fifth-round rookie who has also started back-to-back preseason games as a wideout.

Unfortunately, two things are big separations between the Titans and Jaguars: defensive additions and their schedule. If you asked the casual fan to name three defenders on the team, they might be stumped, and the squad didn't make it a point to bring in splash veteran signings on that side of the ball.

As far as the schedule is concerned, Jacksonville lucked out with a fairly weak AFC South, third-tier AFC slate. They only play two returning playoff teams on the road in 2016—the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texas, who won the AFC South in 2015 and promptly lost to the Chiefs by a score of 30-0.

Per Odds Shark, Jacksonville has the third-best Super Bowl odds of any franchise that hasn't made the playoffs in the last two seasons. On the other hand, the Titans are the 15th AFC team if you're ranking by their Super Bowl odds.

If you had to bet your life on a bottom-five team making the jump from doormat to contender, it would have to be the Jaguars, due to their youth, free-agency additions, draft additions and players returning from injury. Then again, this is a team that has finished with a bottom-five record for the past five seasons and hasn't jumped over the .500 bar since 2007, when its last first-round pick was still in elementary school.

Bradley boasts a 12-36 record over three years, while his former team, the Seattle Seahawks, have won six playoff games and made two Super Bowl appearances without him running their defense. It's push-comes-to-shove time. The Jaguars have all of the pieces they need to look respectable this season, and Bradley is in a make-or-break year when he must execute.