Baltimore Ravens
If you have ever questioned John Harbaugh as a head coach last year should serve as evidence he’s great as a guy overseeing everything. They had a brain drain on defense with Mike Macdonald leaving to be head coach of the Seahawks, Dennard Wilson leaving to be DC in Tennessee, and Anthony Weaver left to be DC in Miami and others left to join them. Harbaugh promoted Zach Orr and the defense was still great. Todd Monken has also proven to be an excellent choice as the offensive coordinator.
Lamar Jackson has been at his best in Todd Monken’s offense and even took another step forward after being awesome the first year in it. Now he’s adding DeAndre Hopkins as another WR to Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman. Flowers proved to be a real weapon last year and for some reason Jackson likes Bateman. Hopkins isn’t the dominant player he once was but he can still do some things and as the third WR in the offense, he’s pretty good. TE Mark Andrews should give them a solid season but he may continue to turn over some of the TE reps to Isaiah Likely, who’s a dynamic athlete at the position. Likely is rehabbing from an injury but he should be back eventually.
Derrick Henry was awesome in this offense and seems to be ageless. At 30 years old he ran for over 1900 yards and was a freight train all season. Between his running ability and what Jackson adds as a running threat at QB, the run game is scary. The offensive line is also better than the sum of its parts. LT Ronnie Stanley had a bounce back season after years of injuries and got a new contract and C Tyler Linderbaum is one of the best centers in the game. Those are the only even above average players individually on the line. RT Roger Rosengarten was a rookie who was fine. Patrick Makari played guard for most of the year and was fine but he left in free agency and will be replaced. Daniel Faalele is a monstrous player at RG and Andrew Voorhees or Ben Cleveland will be the LG, either way they should be fine.
Broderick Washington, Travis Jones, and Nnamdi Madubuike return as the starting defensive line and they are a good unit. Madubuike didn’t have the dominant pass rushing season last year that he had in 2023 but he’s still an effective player. Somehow, they got 12.5 sacks out of 33-year-old Kyle Van Noy at OLB, he’s been a miracle for them. Odafe Oweh got 10 sacks so that helps too but they need more pass rush from one of the younger guys and it’s probably coming from rookie Mike Green. Off the field issues caused him to drop in the draft but he’s a true talent off the edge and should at least be the third rusher. ILB Roquan Smith is one of the best in the league. Trenton Simpson holds down the other ILB spot, they did draft Teddye Buchanan in round four, maybe he helps.
The secondary has been a strength of the Ravens for years and they are trying to get back to that after last year was a little uneven. Nate Wiggins was good as a rookie last season at CB. They signed Jaire Alexander after he was released by Green Bay to take the other outside CB spot, he’s already banged up so that’s not optimal. A healthy Alexander would allow them to play Marlon Humphrey as the nickel. That moves Humphrey to his best position and allows them to move S Kyle Hamilton all over the defense. Hamilton is the key to the defense and they don’t want to pigeonhole him. They also drafted Malaki Starks to give them another good safety and he should be excellent.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals went 9-8 last year and barely missed the playoffs. If they get off to a better start than they usually do, they could win this division. They have basically decided to put all their chips on their offense and hope the defense can be somewhere slightly below average with an incredible offense. The offense can certainly be a top three unit in the league, getting the defense to be better than the bottom third, that might be a tough task. Zac Taylor let veteran defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo go and replaced him with Al Golden, he was Notre Dame’s DC last season. Anarumo had a reputation for not developing the young players while Golden has been working in college for a while so they hope he can do better.
The offense is called by head coach Zac Taylor but it belongs to QB Joe Burrow. Taylor did a nice job adjusting the offense when Burrow was hurt last season but they need Burrow to make this unit dominant. They spent a ton of money this off season to give Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins huge contract extensions to keep the best WR duo in the league together with Burrow. Chase is arguably the best WR in the NFL (it’s him and Justin Jefferson is a steel cage match for that spot). Higgins is the best WR2 in the league because he’s really just a WR1 playing alongside Chase. They are a perfect complementary pair and Burrow is the perfect QB for them. WR Andrei Iosivas, WR Jermaine Burton, WR Charlie Jones, and TE Mike Gesicki can all fight for the leftover passes but there’s not a ton to go around.
The run game is an afterthought for the most part but they did look to improve the interior of the offensive line which should help them be more efficient. RB Chase Brown emerged last season as a viable playmaker with Zack Moss fading into the background and now off the roster. They have giant OTs in LT Orlando Brown Jr. and RT Amarius Mims. Brown is solid while Mims should be ascending. C Ted Karras is solid but he was working with some less than stellar guys inside. The team signed Lucas Patrick from the Saints and drafted Dylan Fairchild and they beat out Cordell Volson and Cody Ford for the starting OG jobs. If the line is better, the running game gets better and the offense might be unstoppable at that point. Chase Brown is an under appreciated runner and he should carry the load.
The defense is a work in progress and that’s putting it lightly. They finally gave DE Trey Hendrickson a raise for the year but there are going to be some hurt feelings over him not getting an extension. They also had a contract dispute with first-round pick DE Shemar Stewart who finally signed and lucky for them he did because he’s looked good early, they need him. They don’t want to count on the rest of the roster at DE. DT was abysmal last season so they signed TJ Slaton and he looks considerably better than Sheldon Rankins was last year. BJ Hill is a good DT but he’s coming off an injury. They need Kris Jenkins Jr. or McKinley Jackson to step up.
At LB, the team released stalwart Germaine Pratt because he was unhappy with the team (there’s a theme here) and are replacing him with second-round pick Demetrius Knight Jr. Knight is an athletic player who’s a bit raw and it’s going to be a transition. They really only play two LBs so Logan Wilson is the veteran at the MLB spot and they need him to have a much better year. Teams generally play in the nickel with two LBs when they have a very good secondary with top talent, that’s not actually the case here. They aren’t stacked in the secondary but the LB corps isn’t great either.
The Bengals have Cam Taylor-Britt as their CB1 with the hope that Dax Hill returns from injury and DJ Turner II steps up at the other spot. None of these guys have proven to be top-level players and Hill and Turner are generally considered disappointments. Hill started to play better at the beginning of last season and then got hurt, that’s how it goes for the Bengals. At safety, Jordan Battle stepped in as rookie and was decent and they are hoping Geno Stone rebounds from a pretty awful first season with the team last year after he signed as a free agent. Beyond those two, they are bad at safety. At least at CB they could maybe hope Josh Newton progresses.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Mike Tomlin is back and so are OC Arthur Smith and DC Teryl Austin so it must have been a pretty uneventful off season in Pittsburgh. Or not. The Justin Fields/Russell Wilson era only lasted one season and if that wasn’t crazy enough for Tomlin, welcome to the Aaron Rodgers experience. The Steelers won 10 games and made the playoffs last season but getting beat in the wildcard game by their division nemesis Baltimore Ravens wasn’t good enough. They moved on from Wilson and Fields.
Aaron Rodgers was terrible for most of last year for the Jets after returning from his Achilles injury and he looked disinterested most of the time. He made the Steelers wait until June before he signed a contract but he was there for minicamp so that’s a start. I’m not sure he has anything left but watching a few of his games at the end of last year, the arm is still there, even if the desire isn’t. Arthur Smith will have to try to get Rodgers to play his style of football, it’s not a great match. Rodgers prefers being the shotgun, Smith is more of an under center kind of guy. They traded George Pickens away, you could say they traded away talent or they traded away a headache, both are true. They also traded for DK Metcalf and gave him a massive contract to be their WR1. He’s less of a headcase than Pickens even if he’s not the most consistent player. They are putting a lot of eggs in the Roman Wilson basket as their WR2 because it’s him and Calvin Austin III and that’s basically it. They even cut Robert Woods at the end of training camp and he was the veteran body they had. Perhaps the find a late trade or grab someone off the waiver wire. They have TE Pat Freiermuth, a good player, and traded for Jonnu Smith right before training camp, he’s an Arthur Smith favorite. It’s going to be interesting to see if they can squeeze any type of production out of Rodgers and these pass catchers.
The best thing they have going for them is the potential of the running game. They have a young, talented, intriguing offensive line and two RBs who could be a dynamic duo. Jaylen Warren is a talented RB but everyone was wondering if he could be a #1 guy when they lost Najee Harris. No worries, they drafted Kaleb Johnson and he’s built to be the RB1 for this offense. He’s the perfect fit in Smith’s preferred outside zone scheme. Johnson is also 6’1 230 lbs. and while he has great size to handle the load like Harris did, he also has homerun ability as a runner, that’s something Harris never had. The offensive line is counting on Broderick Jones figuring out how to be a LT and not sucking and they need Troy Fautanu to be the RT after he missed his entire rookie season. LG Isaac Seumalo, C Zach Frazier, and RG Mason McCormick should be a solid trio inside.
One of the big reasons the Steelers went for Rodgers at QB is because they don’t have time to waste with this defense. They have aging players at every level and need to strike while they are still able to do so. DE Cameron Heyward is a Steelers legend but he’s 36 and can’t play forever. They drafted Derrick Harmon to play opposite him and eventually replace him, he’s good but he had a late injury in training camp so he won’t be available to start the season. Keanu Benton hasn’t progressed like they would hope but he’s solid. NT Yahya Black is a guy to keep an eye on up front. The pass rush comes from OLBs TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith. They just gave Watt a big extension and Highsmith is an emerging talent. ILB Patrick Queen hasn’t been as good as he was in Baltimore but he’s not bad. They’re hoping Payton Wilson can be the other ILB this year.
The secondary got some new old blood and they are hoping that helps. They have needed a CB2 opposite Joey Porter Jr. since they drafted Porter Jr. a couple years ago. They signed Darius Slay who is 34 and coming off winning a Super Bowl in Philadelphia. He can still play and he’s an upgrade for them but the cliff could come at any time. They made the late off season trade to get Jalen Ramsey and he’s their nickel guy and can play some safety. He can still play outside CB but with Porter and Slay they hope they don’t need him there. They gave up S Minkah Fitzpatrick in the Ramsey deal and while he was one of their most talented defenders, he’s a guy who was often caught freelancing and out of position. Juan Thornhill and DeShon Elliot are not as talented as Fitzpatrick but the hope is they are more consistent in their assignments. Ramsey is the new chess piece to move around so overall the secondary should be better.
Cleveland Browns
Kevin Stefanski is actually a good coach and for his sake, I hope he gets fired next off season and gets to go to a franchise that isn’t a dumpster fire. The Browns are in the middle of spending $230 million guaranteed on a QB who has a twice torn Achilles and who they would prefer to pretend doesn’t exist. They brought in four QBs to try to replace Deshaun Watson with no guarantee any of them can. And they are counting on a running game to save them but their offensive line is aging and injured and their new RB just got arrested for domestic violence. This could only be the Browns.
Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shadeur Sanders were going to stage a 4-way battle for the starting job but it didn’t materialize. Pickett got hurt early, didn’t play, and then got traded to the Raiders. Gabriel and Sanders never gave the Browns a reason to think they could be the starter. So, Joe Flacco gets the job by default; he was always going to be the week one starter. WR Jerry Jeudy had a solid year last year and I actually like Cedric Tillman as their X receiver. They don’t have much else at WR so Jeudy and Tillman should get plenty of targets. TE David Njoku is a very good player. The passing game will likely be inconsequential but they hope it’s at least functional.
The running game is also in flux with the arrest of Quinshon Judkins just before training camp. They were counting on him being the guy to replace Nick Chubb, but he still hasn’t signed with the team. For now, they will have to go back to using Jerome Ford and their other rookie Dylan Sampson will have to pick up the slack. The offensive line also presents issues. Dawand Jones is set to be the LT and he’s not really a LT, that’s not great. The interior of the line didn’t play well last year and Joel Bitonio will be 34, Ethan Pocic will be 30, and Wyatt Teller will be 31, generally offensive linemen don’t get better or healthier as they age past 30. RT Jack Conklin will also be 31and has a rough injury history. They don’t have a ton of depth and things could go bad quickly. Joe Flacco behind a suspect offensive line is not a great combination.
If you told me the defense rebounds this season and plays great, I wouldn’t be shocked. DE Myles Garrett is one of the most feared pass rushers in the NFL. He’s one of those guys offensive coordinator must have a plan for. They signed veteran DT Maliek Collins and while he’s not a game changer, he’s a solid player. They traded down in the draft and still got DT Mason Graham who can be a game changer. He’s arguably going to be the most talented defensive lineman Myles Garrett has played with. The other DE sport is either Alex Wright or Isaiah McGuire for now but they have to be looking to bring someone in.
The LB group will be missing Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah for this season and possibly for good. He had a neck injury that took him out in week nine last year and is already ruled out for this year, his career is potentially over. It’s too bad, he was very good player for them and they will miss him. They drafted Carson Schwesinger in round two of the draft and he’s the starter in place of JOK. Jordan Hicks announced his retirement before camp leaving the other LB spot open to competition. Mohamoud Diabate seems to have won that competition.
They use five defensive backs and given their LB corps, that’s not the worst idea. They are talented in secondary and they just need to stay healthy. CB Denzel Ward is a real CB1 when he’s on the field. Martin Emerson was an excellent CB2 but he’s out for the season and that hurts. Greg Newsome II now has to step up from the slot CB to be the other outside guy, that’s not ideal but he should be fine. SS Grant Delpit and FS Ronnie Hickman have their limitations but are a solid safety duo.
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