AFC North
1. Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5)
2. Cleveland Browns (9-7)
3. Cincinnati Bengals (6-10)
4. Baltimore Ravens (4-12)
Pittsburgh Steelers: In his first year as Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin led the club to a division title before they choked a home playoff game away to the Jaguars. That's not a slam on the Jags (who came into Pittsburgh and WON), but more of a critique on the Steelers, who probably had more talent on both sides of the ball.
QB Ben Roethlisberger (pictured, right, with Tomlin) is coming off a career year (32 TDs and 11 INTs) and still has his three favorite targets (WR Hines Ward, WR Santonio Holmes, TE Heath Miller) intact. However, I'm not crazy about the fact that they lost a few of their offensive lineman (including Pro Bowler Alan Faneca), but the existing line should be good enough to open up holes for RB Willie Parker and rookie RB Rashard Mendenhall.
The defense was tops last year in yards allowed per game and should be strong again this year.
Despite a tough schedule, there's really no reason again (no catastrophic motorcycle accidents for key players) the Steelers can't join New England, San Diego and Indianpolis (in the last year of their prime) as contenders for the AFC title.
Cleveland Browns: The Browns were strong contenders for biggest surprise of last season, and they stayed aggressive this year. By hanging on to breakout QB Derek Anderson and adding (overrated) WR Donte Stallworth, they're making it very clear they want to win now.
The main problem for me is that, unlike last year, the Browns will surprise absolutely no one this year. It's different for an NFL team to play when people are actually expecting good things out of them. I'm also pretty sure that QB Derek Anderson is not quite as good as he was last year (29 TDs and 19 INTs), and I expect him to struggle a bit this year, leading to some "when is Brady Quinn going to play" talk, which will lead to many shots of Quinn (pictured, left) looking studly on the sidelines and more trouble for Anderson and the team.
I'm also not sure the Browns did enough to upgrade their defense (30th in the league in yards per game allowed), so, for the second year in a row, they will finish with a winning record, but NOT make the playoffs. Oh well, at least Romeo Crennel will get to keep his job this year...
Cincinnati Bengals: ...Marvin Lewis (pictured, right), on the other hand, may be another matter.
Sure, Lewis took the Bengals from perennial losers to a couple of 8-8 seasons and a playoff appearance, but everything since then has been a disaster. For a guy hailed as a defensive mastermind, the Bengals have been absolutely brutal on that side of the ball (27th or worse) the past few years.
Then there was Lewis and his team's vow (for the third offseason) in a row to clear all the knuckleheads out of the Bengals locker room and make way for players who actually want to be there and players whose mugshots don't regularly appear on the local news. To that end, they hung on to disgruntled WR Chad Johnson (who was begging out of Cincy) and recently resigned WR Chris Henry after Johnson suffered an injury in a preseason game. Henry will have to sit out the first four games of the season due to a suspension and the Bengals hope he'll stay out of trouble after that — and by "trouble", I mean jail. (How sad is it that if Henry doesn't go to jail this year, it'll be considered a triumph — to quote Chris Rock "you're not SUPPOSED to go to jail, ya low expectation-having motherf---er!")
That being said, they still have one of the most talented quarterbacks in the league in Carson Palmer and one of the best receiving corps (if they can get Johnson, Henry and T.J. Houshmandzadeh on the field at the same time). They also added TE Ben Utecht for more offensive firepower and plan to use RB Kenny Watson and RB Chris Perry more in place of Rudi Johnson, who's almost completely washed up.
Of course, the odds of all those players being on the field at the same time are not good, and neither is the Bengals defense, which should lead to another losing season and to Lewis losing his job. (Take heart, Bengals fans: I had Crennel and Tom Coughlin fired at this point last year too!)
Baltimore Ravens: What am I supposed to write about the one team that lost to the 1-15 Dolphins?
Of course, there's a chance the team could get inspired under new head coach John Harbaugh and play more like the way they did against the New England Patriots when they nearly took down the undefeated Pats last year. The team seemed like it grew tired of former coach/alleged offensive genius and his underwhelming work with the Ravens offense. Ok, maybe it was just the Ravens defensive players that were underwhelmed by the Ravens offense.
Maybe the Ravens will bounce back into the 13-3 form of two years ago.
Then I remember that Harbaugh has never been a head coach anywhere (he must've done an extra special job of coaching Special Teams and defensive backs before he got to Baltimore). I also remember that the Ravens defense (their signature for the decade) is over the hill and probably entering its last productive season and that the same could possibly be said for injury-plagued RB Willis McGahee.
At least they have not one (Kyle Boller), not two (Troy Smith, pictured, left, with Boller), but three (first-round pick Joe Flacco) quarterbacks vying for the starting job. Oh wait, having no idea which guy out of three candidates is your starting QB is a BAD thing. Especially when one of them is Kyle Boller.
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