In this new series, Lou and I will be recapping each team’s offseason by division. Today, I will start with the AFC North. A division that was tightly contested all last year and saw the Bengals win it for the first time since 2015 with the Steelers securing a wild card spot on the final day of the season. Banged up Cleveland and Baltimore teams will look to get healthy and have made new additions to help them compete for the division title as well. Here are my thoughts on the NFL’s second best division.

Cincinnati Bengals – 10-7 (4-2) in 2021

• Key Acquisitions: RG Alex Cappa (73.1 PFF Grade in 2021), RT La’el Collins (82.0 PFF Grade), C Ted Karras (72.2 PFF Grade), TE Hayden Hurst (55.2 PFF Grade)
• Key Departures: DT Larry Ogunjobi (50.2 PFF Grade), TE CJ Uzomah (62.0 PFF Grade)
• Key Draft Picks: DB Dax Hill, CB Cam Taylor-Britt, DL Zach Carter, OG Cordell Volson

The reigning AFC Champion Bengals will have their work cut out for them to get back to the Super Bowl again in 2022. The AFC has only got more talented and deeper this offseason, but the Bengals made some key moves at positions of need as well. OC Brian Callahan admitted during their playoff run that they were doing the best they could with the poor talent up front on the OL. It was not pretty in the playoffs, but the Bengals found ways to sneak games out. Joe Burrow, who was sacked a league-high 70 times (drink if you’ve heard that stat before), should finally have some better protection up front with 3 veteran additions along the OL. An offense that so often relied on go-balls on 3 step drops and stalled out in the red-zone and in short yardage situations, should see some more stability and be less reliant on big plays in 2022. A more efficient run game and more diverse passing attack should be possible with the improvements up front. Burrow will also have the first offseason of his career after Covid and injury rehab prevented him the last two years. The team lost Uzomah and added Hurst which does not really move the needle either way in mind. The offense should take a step forward this year, even if the big plays see regression.

On defense, the Bengals bring back every playoff starter from a unit that made every QB they played in January look lost (yes, even Patrick Mahomes). Playoff star Jessie Bates, is unhappy with the franchise tag, but is expected to suit up week 1. The Bengals continued to add to this unit in the draft in each of the first 3 rounds. Versatile DB Dax Hill is expected to play a role as a 3rd Safety and Dime package CB from Day 1. CB Cam Taylor-Britt will compete throughout camp with Eli Apple for the second outside CB spot and will likely be starting by the mid-to-late season. 3-Tech Zachary Carter is expected to fill a chunk of the snaps lost by Ogunjobi and be used on some passing downs next to BJ Hill. The Bengals targeted long, athletic, versatile defenders on the first two days of the draft in hopes of giving DC Lou Anarumo more chess pieces to slow down the elite passing attacks of the AFC in January once again.

Overall, I’d give the Bengals an A- for their offseason. They wasted no time investing in their biggest need on the OL and added multiple versatile defensive pieces in the Draft. You’d still like to see them add one more veteran to compete at LG or DT and a good 4th WR in case of injury, but they look ready to compete for the division crown once again.

Cleveland Browns – 8-9 (3-3) in 2021

• Key Acquisitions: QB Deshaun Watson (92.5 PFF Grade in 2020), WR Amari Cooper (72.9 PFF Grade in 2021), EDGE Chase Winovich (55.6 PFF Grade), Taven Bryan (56.4 PFF Grade), KR/WR Jakeem Grant (63.7 PFF Grade)
• Key Departures: C J.C. Tretter (78.7 PFF Grade), Jarvis Landry (66.3 PFF Grade), LB Mack Wilson (75.3 PFF Grade), TE Austin Hooper (64.2 PFF Grade)
• Key Draft Picks: CB Martin Emerson, EDGE Alex Wright, WR David Bell, DT Perrion Winfrey

The Browns might have been the most talked about team of the entire offseason, and that has entirely to do with one man: Deshaun Watson. Cleveland traded 3 firsts round picks and gave him $230 million in fully guaranteed money to hopefully be what Baker Mayfield was not for them. We have not seen Deshaun on the field since 2020. Although the Texans were awful that year, Watson put up very impressive numbers. Watson in 2020 is 1 of 5 QB seasons ever with 70%+ completion percentage and 8.5+ YPA (others being Montana, Young, Brees, and division mate Joe Burrow). He is, quite simply, the most talented QB Cleveland has had in the Super Bowl era – with all due respect to Bernie Kosar. Watson, of course, is facing 22 sexual assault cases and the NFL has not announced what a suspension for him will look like. They brought in Jacoby Brissett as insurance, but in a loaded AFC, the Browns need Watson as much as possible if they want to compete. They also added Amari Cooper to an offense in desperate need of WR talent. Rookie David Bell is not a great athlete but hits all their young breakout age and production stats that analytic nerds dream about. Cleveland will have to hope Peoples-Jones and Njoku finally have breakout years with improved QB play. It will be interesting to see how Kevin Stefanski changes this offense to suit Watson, who ran a much more open, spread offense in Houston. Despite the loss of Tretter, Cleveland still boasts one of the league’s better OLs and RB rooms. What kind of offense they run will be just as interesting as who is in it.

Defensively, Cleveland brought almost everyone back. This included a large extension for CB Denzel Ward and 1 year deal for EDGE Jadeveon Clowney. They added some solid late day 2 pieces in the draft who should serve mostly as depth in year 1. The Browns are weakest at DT and LB where they are relying mostly on average veterans to play snaps. A breakout year from 2nd year LB JOK, or an earlier than expected emergence of rookie Perrion Winfrey would greatly help these groups. Garrett and Ward should continue to play at All-Pro levels and give the rest of the division issues.

Overall, it is tough to give the Browns a grade at this time. Some fans are very upset about the organization making a man accused of 22 counts of sexual assault the face of the franchise, while others are willing to look past it if it means winning their first division title since 1989. We also do not know how long his suspension will be, which also affects a grade. But at the end of the day, from a football perspective, if you want to win games in the NFL you need great QB play. The Browns roster shouldn’t be drastically better or worse than it has been the last two seasons, but if Deshaun is able to show he is still one of the league’s best QBs, Cleveland should be real contenders in the AFC for the first time in my life.

Baltimore Ravens – 8-9 (1-5) in 2021

• Key Additions: S Marcus Williams (80.1 PFF Grade in 2021), RT Morgan Moses (71.0 PFF Grade), DT Michael Pierce (78.5 PFF Grade), Kyle Fuller (47.2 PFF Grade)
• Key Departures: WR Marquise Brown (68.6 PFF Grade), C Bradley Bozeman (73.3 PFF Grade), Anthony Averett (56.3 PFF Grade)
• Key Draft Picks: S Kyle Hamilton, C Tyler Linderbaum, EDGE David Ojabo, DT Travis Jones

The start of 2021 featured the Ravens sneaking out so many tight games. The offense was run entirely through 2019 MVP Lamar Jackson and they continually made late comebacks to win. Eventually, the injuries added up, Lamar began to struggle through the air, and the wheels fell off. Offensively, JK Dobbins is back after missing all of last season with a torn ACL and hopes to build on his promising rookie season. Ronnie Stanley, who was an All-Pro in 2019, has played just 7 games in the past two seasons. If he can finally get back to good health, he along with new additions in veteran RT Morgan Moses and rookie C Tyler Linderbaum, the Ravens could have one of the league’s best OLs once again. I fully expect Baltimore to lead the league in rushing this season. The biggest concern on their roster is at the WR position. Their WR corps rivals the Bears as the worst in all of football. They traded away Lamar’s top target, Hollywood Brown, along with a 3rd to get Linderbaum which in a vacuum is a good deal. However, this has left the cupboard bare at WR. Rashod Bateman is a prospect I liked coming out last year, but with just 4 starts under his belt, it is tough to count on him being a good WR1. As of now, Devin Duvernay and James Proche are WR2 and WR3, neither of whom have a 300 yard season to their name. Their WRs already struggled to get open in man coverage last year. Miami on Thursday Night Football in Week 10 sent zero blitz at them all night and dared their WRs to beat their CBs in single coverage. Fans claimed they “found the scheme to beat Lamar”, but in reality they found how to beat the Ravens offense. Teams the rest of the year brought pressure and dared Baltimore WRs to beat single coverage and their offense could not overcome it. How the Ravens scheme past this without good WR talent this year will be key in their chances of returning back to the postseason.

On the defensive side, Baltimore signed S Marcus Williams in free agency to boost the secondary. In the draft, they hammered defense early, grabbing playmakers in S Kyle Hamilton, currently injured EDGE David Ojabo, and big DT Travis Jones. Much like Cincinnati, expect to see Baltimore deploy more 3 Safety looks featuring Williams, Hamilton, and Chuck Clark with Hamilton moving into the box as a de facto LB in Big Nickel packages and Clark playing a slot corner role in dime packages. Jones and Ojabo will likely be brought on slowly and push for starting roles in year 2. At Corner, Marlon Humphrey comes back from a late season pectoral injury and hopes to get back to more of his 2020 form after a down year by his standards in 2021. Marcus Peters will be coming off a torn ACL and hoping to return to 2019 form after a down 2020 and missing 2021. The most important change on the defense comes in the form of new DC Mike Macdonald after Wink Martindale was fired last season. The Ravens shouldn’t see vast changes in scheme as Macdonald was a LB Coach in Baltimore under Martindale for a few years before going to Michigan as DC for one season. But expect to see him mix in blitzes and zone coverage rather than just sending heat every play and playing man like Martindale was predominantly known for.

Overall, I’d give the Ravens an A- grade for their offseason. They brought in a good Safety in Marcus Williams and took advantage of their abundance of picks by having a great draft. The only thing keeping me from giving them an A is the fact that they did not address WR. It was already an issue last year and got worse which is troubling. The biggest key outside of that is praying that all their injured players come back just as good as they were pre-injury. If the injuries work themselves out, the Ravens have a decent shot to win this division. However, I’m not sure they can win multiple games against elite offenses in January with the flaws in their passing attack.

Pittsburgh Steelers 9-7-1 (4-2) in 2021

• Key Additions: G James Daniels (71.0 PFF Grade in 2021), LB Myles Jack (37.7 PFF Grade), CB Levi Wallace (66.5 PFF Grade), C Mason Cole (69.7 PFF Grade), QB Mitchell Trubisky (62.0 PFF Grade in 2020)
• Key Departures: WR Juju Smith-Schuster (59.2 PFF Grade in 2021), QB Ben Roethlisberger (55.8 PFF Grade), G Trai Turner (69.4 PFF Grade), WR James Washington (50.5 PFF Grade)
• Key Draft Picks: QB Kenny Pickett, WR George Pickens, DL DeMarvin Leal, WR Calvin Austin III

I still do not know how, but the Steelers made the playoffs last year. Pittsburgh is now on to a new era at QB after seeing Big Ben finally hang it up #ThankYew7. It is unsure which of the two QBs acquired this offseason will get the nod Week 1, but I assume first round pick Kenny Pickett will be under Center by at least the Week 9 Bye. Trubisky will get his shot to compete in camp and win the job, but Pickett was the pick for a reason. The former Pitt Panther will be 24 by the start of the season and was seen unanimously as the QB most ready to jump into a starting role in Week 1. The Steelers do not rebuild, and clearly see Pickett as a guy that can make their offense better immediately. I don’t think he has the fire power to compete with the other 3 QBs in the division, but he should be an instant upgrade on the Big Ben we saw the last two seasons. While not the big name signings on the OL, the Steelers did make solid moves on G James Daniels and C Mason Cole who should be upgrades for one of the league’s poorer lines in 2021. They replaced Juju and James Washington with George Pickens and Calvin Austin III. There shouldn’t be a big difference in production this year, but Pickens offers more upside than Juju at this point in his career if he can ever put it all together. Austin slides in as a smaller, but more dynamic WR4 than Washington, and these selections give them more flexibility when deciding what to do with Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool in the future.

On the defensive side, Pittsburgh added CB Levi Wallace from Buffalo and Myles Jack from Jacksonville. Wallace is a solid CB3 that was shifted into a CB2 (and later CB1 role after the injury of Tre White) last season and should provide a solid option for a relatively weak CB room. Myles Jack was once considered a promising young LB in Jacksonville but never took the next step. He is coming off the worst season of his career, which partly could be attributed to a dysfunctional coaching staff led by Urban Meyer. Pittsburgh takes a low risk chance on reviving a LB that is still young and has shown flashes of great play in a strong defense. The Steelers are in a similar situation with their own former top pick LB Devin Bush. Bush is coming off his worst career year and Pittsburgh declined his 5th year option. Ideally, at least one of these two bounce back and become a consistent playmaker in the second level this season.They also took a stab at rookie DL DeMarvin Leal who should learn under Stephon Tuitt’s wing. Tuitt is one of the league’s most underappreciated 3-4 DEs and missed the entire 2021 season with a knee injury. Hopefully he is back to full health and Leal can join the DL rotation to get the Steelers run defense back to an elite level.

Overall, I think the Steelers should be about as good as they were last season from a talent perspective. I’d give their offseason a C. They did not make any huge signings, and I am not as high on Pickett as they are. However, as we know, if Kenny turns out to be a stud, they could be right back in the mix very soon (as we’ve seen from Lamar and Burrow early in their AFC North careers). The Steelers will not be bad, but it would be shocking to see them win this division in 2022 with the other 3 teams all improving the way they have. Regardless, they will be competitive in most games they play this season.