One Thing Every AFC North Team Can Do to Win the Division
Photo Credit: Mike Carlson, Getty Images
The AFC North this year is the same as it normally is, two or three teams in true contention for the division title with the rest still having a chance due to their familiarity with the other teams in the division. All four of the teams in this division have well-built rosters that can contribute to a great year for their respective fans, but only one can win the division. Let’s take a closer look.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Young weapons help Kenny Pickett develop, secondary flourishes.
The Steelers were a team last year that escaped with a winning record at 9-8, with rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett getting seven wins in his nine starts to salvage the Steelers’ season. Improvement is likely this season, with the first full season of Pickett at the helm and the assistance of young blood for his weapons: 2022 draft pick George Pickens and 2023 pick Darnell Washington. Additionally, the Steelers traded up in the first round to select one of the premier offensive tackles in the class in Georgia’s Broderick Jones. Their second round pick was spent on Joey Porter Jr, a fantastic cornerback out of nearby Penn State. Porter Jr will go to great lengths to improve a secondary that was mediocre last year at best. Minkah Fitzpatrick is still one of the best safeties in the league, but Porter will help improve that unit by leaps and bounds. If the young players’ development pans out, the Steelers are looking to be a gritty and hungry young team to make some noise in a crowded AFC.
Cincinnati Bengals: Keep. Burrow. Safe.
Joe Burrow is the most sacked quarterback in the league over the past two years. The constant pressure put on him when he drops back to pass is one of the reasons the Bengals are held back from being Super Bowl champions at least once in the past two years. Hopefully, the addition of offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. in the offseason will help keep Burrow upright and allow him to have more time to throw and deliver passes to his very talented group of weapons.
Cleveland Browns: Deshaun Watson returns to pre-hold out form.
As always with the Browns, it comes down to the quarterback. Cleveland traded a lot of assets last offseason for Deshaun Watson, and he looks pretty bad in the few games they got him for after his suspension last season. For the Browns to be able to have any kind of success, Watson needs to return to being the guy that escaped three separate sacks against the Bills in the Wild Card game, and the one that led the league in passing yards in 2020. They’ve got the weapons, they’ve got the defense, Watson needs to step up and perform the Browns to get anywhere this year.
Baltimore Ravens: Stay healthy, Lamar develops as a passer.
The Ravens have been absolutely ravaged by injuries in the past two years, never being able to get any momentum going because at one time or another, they were missing a big piece of what made their team work. Running backs had torn ACL’s all over the place, Lamar Jackson couldn’t stay on the field for one reason or another, the entire function was a disaster. This year, they have everyone healthy (for the most part) and Lamar is supplied with more passing weapons than he’s had throughout his entire career. This is the time for him to step up and prove that he’s worth all of that money that the Ravens just gave him this offseason. Use the new weapons in tandem with your existing ones, and show that dual threat offense that the Ravens drafted you for, a threat on the ground and through the air packaged into one player.
There you have it, the ways every AFC North team can win the division. This is a close division, no team is drastically behind the other here in the race for the division crown going into the preseason. In a division that can be taken by anyone, it’s always interesting to see the adjustmanets that are made to try and get a team to that division crown.
