With a high-profile transfer quarterback and its passing offense being in the basement of the SEC, Auburn is the easiest choice to have one of the most improved passing games this season.

Given the performance in the recent spring game, and the proclamation to be more balanced down from the 69 percent rushing attack of 2016, Auburn is in line for a huge passing game resurgence after it topped 200 yards in just five games.

After all, the Tigers were last in the league in passing last season with 169.5 yards per game, 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. And it’s not simply that they couldn’t throw the ball, they didn’t try that much. Auburn was also last in passing attempts at 289, or just 22 per game.

Insert Baylor transfer Jarrett Stidham, who is the presumed starter at quarterback, and who impressed in the A-Day game when he completed 16-of-20 passes for 267 yards. The first-team offense that he led scored on five of his six first-half possessions. Stidham has a host of young receives, including Nate Craig-Myers, Darius Slayton and Will Hastings. Craig-Myers and Slayton made catches of 50 and 46 yards in the spring game.

If there’s one player who might welcome Stidham the most, it’s Craig-Myers, who had four catches for 70 yards last season, and five receptions for 154 yards in the spring game alone. Stidham accounted for 101 of those yards.

“It felt like I’m back in a groove,” Craig-Myers told oanow.com. “I think I could have improved on a lot of stuff but it was a pretty good spring.”

Jake Bentley having a full season at quarterback for South Carolina should vault the Gamecocks up from seventh in the SEC. Bentley’s 1,420 passing yards in seven games accounted for more than half of the team’s 2,771 yards last season.

Bentley’s main targets, Deebo Samuel and Hayden Hurst, are also in line to catch more than the one touchdown reception they each had in 2016, not to mention that neither cracked 800 yards receiving. Add early enrollee OrTre Smith and another deep threat, Bryan Edwards, who shined in the Garnet and Black game, and Bentley has the ingredients to put up big numbers.

Speaking of SEC East offenses looking for the next gear, Jim Chaney’s return for another season at Georgia was a sigh of relief for veteran players.

Jacob Eason having another year to digest the playbook shouldn’t hurt either, especially if he’s pushed by early enrollee Jake Fromm. The passing offense was 10th in the league last year at 193.5 yards per game, which was 97th out of 128 teams nationally in total passing offense. Chaney admitted in February during an interview on Georgia’s National Signing Day webcast that he wanted to improve upon what he considered a disappointing year for offensive production. Some ideas could be more run-pass options, and given Eason’s experience, more freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage.

Despite the departure of NFL-bound Isaiah McKenzie, who led the team with 44 catches for 633 yards, Chaney and Eason have plenty of capable targets, including four of the top five receivers from last season: Terry Godwin, Isaac Nauta, Sony Michel and Javon Wims.

When LSU settles on a quarterback, a competition Danny Etling leads, the Tigers will look to benefit from the hire of Matt Canada as offensive coordinator. Etling continued to be at the top of the list of quarterbacks after a recent scrimmage when he was 13-for-17 passing for 216 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Canada’s goal is to generate out of Etling and Co. the kind of production he had last season at Pittsburgh, where he was offensive coordinator, which produced 2,882 passing yards and 28 touchdowns. Etling, meanwhile in 2016, had a pedestrian 2,123 passing yards on 160-of-269 passes with 11 TDs and five interceptions.

Mississippi State is another candidate to improve after averaging just 209 yards passing per game in 2016.

While Nick Fitzgerald was unimpressive in the Mississippi State spring game, at a rate of 14-of-27 passes for 127 yards with 4 interceptions, his stock remains on the upswing. Coach Dan Mullen was pleased overall with Fitzgerald this spring as he worked with new quarterbacks coach Brett Elliott, who was on the staff three years ago.

Elliott’s job will be to develop Fitzgerald into a complete quarterback — knowing he still will be known as a rushing threat — and to deliver the numbers he did, despite a loss, against Arkansas last season when he went 23-for-33 for 328 yards and two touchdowns.