Baltimore Ravens
It’s a bit hard to pick against the team with the reigning NFL MVP at QB so I’m not going to do it. The Ravens have built their offense around the very special talents of Lamar Jackson. Jackson is the definition of a mobile QB, the difference between him and other running QBs is Jackson keeps his head up and is always still looking to make a throw downfield. He’s far more accurate than he gets credit for and if he gets a little more help out of his receiver group, he can become even more dangerous. Marquise Brown should take another step towards being a legit #1 WR. He has plenty of talent and is an exceptionally dangerous deep threat. The team needs Miles Boykin to become a bigger threat as the #2 guy. The sleeper here is rookie Devan Duvernay who could be a beast with his speed and change of direction skill. Jackson relies heavily on his TEs, especially Mark Andrews who has become his favorite target. The team has one of the best running games in the league, a lot of that has to do with Jackson making plays with his legs but Mark Ingram is a top-notch power back. The team also added rookie JK Dobbins and he should help take the load off of Ingram as he ages. The offensive line lost future Hall of Famer RG Marshal Yanda but they return the other four starters and they have plenty of options to choose from to step in at RG. This offense should only be more dangerous as they get more comfortable together.
The defense was good last year but it can be better this season. The team added two aging veterans to the defensive line; Derek Wolfe and Calais Campbell. They should add stability up front and they have to be hoping Campbell adds some pass rush. Campbell is 35 but he still has some juice left. At OLB, Matt Judon has come on as the primary pass rusher in Baltimore but he needs some help. Campbell is the first option to upgrade the pass rush but it would really help if second-year man Jaylon Ferguson would win the other OLB job and bring some heat. The ILB spot needed help and the team is counting on two rookies to do it. First-rounder Patrick Queen will step in right away and the team also has Malik Harrison, a third-rounder they look to develop. The secondary may have taken a hit talent-wise with Earl Thomas being cut but he seemed to rub his teammates the wrong way so the team chemistry may improve with inexperienced but talented DeShon Elliott stepping into his role. The trade last year for CB Marcus Peters stabilized and improved the position opposite Marlon Humphrey and made this secondary one of the best in the league.
The Ravens waltzed through the AFC North last year when the Steelers were without Ben Roethlisberger and the Browns didn’t live up to their hype. They still don’t have to worry about the Bengals, who are clearly rebuilding, but Big Ben is back and if the Browns ever do live up to their talent level, look out. The Ravens should win the division again but winning 14 games will be harder without a cakewalk division. Also, the league has now seen an entire year of Lamar Jackson so they will be better prepared to face him. The Ravens are Super Bowl contenders but the path will be much more difficult.
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers went 8-8 with Ben Roethlisberger missing almost the entire season, Mike Tomlin deserved more Coach of the Year votes. I don’t know how many he got but he deserved more. He won 8 games with Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges lining up at QB. The offense will be massively improved with the return of Big Ben, even if he is getting a little older. They have a stable of RBs led by James Conner and featuring Jaylen Samuels, Benny Snell and rookie Anthony McFarland in some capacity. At WR, Juju Smith-Schuster will be the biggest beneficiary of Big Ben’s return and it should aid the development of youngsters James Washington, Diontae Johnson and rookie Chase Claypool. The offensive line isn’t flashy but they get the job done. At TE, the team added Eric Ebron to Vance McDonald. Ebron is a talented player who has worn out his welcome in more than one place. If he can get along, he could be a valuable weapon.
The defense has been a 3-4 for as long as I can remember and they are led by the incredibly talented OLB TJ Watt, he is just entering his prime. He has a solid pass rushing running mate in OLB Bud Dupree and both guys are in their mid-20s meaning they are primed to be excellent for a while. They don’t have any real depth behind them but these two can play a lot of snaps. Devin Bush stepped into the ILB spot last year as a rookie and played quite well. Veteran Vince Williams isn’t a flashy guy next to Bush inside but he’s a steady veteran presence. The team has veterans up front like Cameron Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, Chris Wormley and Tyson Alualu. They are not a well know bunch but they are solid. At CB, Joe Haden still has some gas in the tank and Steven Nelson played better in the last half of last year than he did early on. The secondary really changed last year when the team traded for Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Dolphins and stepped in at safety. Fitzpatrick is a multitalented player who gave the defense a playmaker in the back end that made all the difference to this team. If youngster Terrell Edmunds can hold down the other safety spot the Steelers secondary could be a strength.
I don’t think this team has the fire power to go toe-to-toe with the Ravens offensively but Mike Tomlin can coach the hell out of this team. They won’t back down and they won’t go away quietly as long as Big Ben is healthy this season. He has said his arm feels better than it had previously after having his UCL repaired. That’s not an uncommon thing to hear baseball pitchers say after the same surgery so he may have new life in his aging arm.
Cleveland Browns
The most disappointing team last season was the Cleveland Browns. There was a lot of hype around a team with a young QB coming off a good rookie season and a whole host of skill position players that looked like the makings of a great offense. I said last year the two things that could derail the Browns were a bad offensive line and their head coach. That’s exactly what happened. They have addressed both issues. Kevin Stefanski was hired as the new head coach and he can’t be worse than Freddie Kitchens and the offensive line has seen some good turnover. Stefanski was the Vikings offensive coordinator and he relied heavily on his running game and using the TE. This team has Nick Chubb, who was second in the league in rushing last year and they signed Austin Hooper at TE to add to David Njoku. Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry are a talented pair of WRs the new offense should find ways to use better than Kitchens did. The new offensive line features three new starters including LT Jedrick Willis, RT Jack Conklin and RG Wyatt Teller. That leaves C JC Tretter and LG Joel Bitonio as the two returning starters, the two good ones from last year. Stefanski knows what an NFL offense is supposed to look like and the Browns have to hope Baker Mayfield can recover from whatever Kitchens and Todd Haley did to him last season.
The defense will be led by DE Myles Garrett who is returning from his suspension to end last year after the ugly confrontation during the Steelers game. Garrett needs to put it all behind him but some people won’t forget he tried to hit Steelers QB Mason Rudolph in the head with a helmet during the altercation. Garrett is a superior talent and if he can get back on track, he’s a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. The entire defensive line is pretty good with Olivier Vernon lining up at the other DE spot and Larry Ogunjobi and Sheldon Richardson playing inside at DT. The LB corps leaves a lot to be desired and the team is counting on second-year man Sione Takitaki, rookie Jacob Phillips, youngster Tae Davis and newly signed BJ Goodson to be playmakers. That’s not a great group. The secondary has a chance to be better but it took a hit when rookie Grant Delpit was lost for the year to injury. Denzel Ward is a legitimate #1 CB and Greedy Williams is more than capable of being the #2. They need Karl Joseph and Andrew Sendejo to really step up at safety. The newly acquired Ronnie Harrison from Jacksonville could help out there too once he’s up to speed.
The Browns need Kevin Stefanski to work out for no other reason than this team needs some stability. They go through coaches like Kleenex and that isn’t conducive to winning. I don’t think this team is ready to compete with the Ravens for the top of the division but they should make it harder on them and give the Steelers something to worry about.
Cincinnati Bengals
There are two things I know for sure about the Bengals this year; Joe Burrow is going to put up some incredible stats for a rookie QB and the Bengals are going to suck. I love the WR corps Burrow has to work with; AJ Green, Tyler Boyd, Tee Higgins, and John Ross bring a lot of skills to the table. If Green is healthy, he and Boyd are a formidable pair. The TE group is pretty non-descript. CJ Uzomah has never been the #1 guy and Drew Sample isn’t ready for that spot either. The RB duo of Joe Mixon and Giovani Bernard is excellent. Mixon is an upper echelon talent while Bernard is the perfect complementary veteran to pair with him. LT Jonah Williams, LG Mike Jordan, C Trey Hopkins, RG Xavier Su’a-Fila, and RT Bobby Hart are a scary combination. Not for defenses, for Joe Burrow. This is a line that needs lots of work and a lot to go right to keep Burrow from getting killed. As you can see there is a lot to like and a lot to dislike about the Bengals offense. That inconsistency probably doesn’t bode well for this team’s chances of winning a lot of games. The three defenses they will face in their division will likely eat their offensive line for breakfast so Burrow needs to throw the ball quickly and then duck. His stats will look good at the end of the year because this team will be behind a lot and he’ll get some garbage time statistics.
As inconsistent as the offense might be the defense might just be consistently bad. The big off season addition up front was NT DJ Reader from Houston. That will help in the run game but he’s not improving their pedestrian pass rush. DEs Carlos Dunlop and Sam Hubbard are nice players who give everything they got but they don’t scare opposing offenses coming off the edge. DT Geno Atkins was once a feared interior pass rusher but those days are over, he’s a solid veteran player but he isn’t changing the game anymore. The LB corps should be better than last year’s atrocious group but that’s not setting the bar very high. This group will lean heavily on rookies like Logan Wilson and Akeem Davis-Gaither and second-year player Germaine Pratt which is likely to lead to some mental mistakes. Veteran Josh Bynes is around but he’s bounced around the league for a while for a reason, he’s the type of player you play while you’re looking for his replacement. The secondary was supposed to be better with CBs Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander added in free agency but Waynes is injured and likely out for the year. That leaves a hole outside opposite William Jackson because Alexander is better suited for the slot. At safety, the team signed Vonn Bell to pair with Jesse Bates, a serviceable pair assuming Bell beats out Shawn Williams, who is nursing an injury.
The Bengals are in full-on rebuild mode which means they don’t care as much about winning as they do about developing their young guys. Burrow is the future of the franchise and my advice this year is keep max protect as much as possible to save him from getting pummeled every week. The team has some great skill position players to build around but unless they have a miracle worker coaching the offensive line that group is going to get destroyed almost every week.
The Hott Read 