http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000508650/article/nfl-power-rankings-packers-seahawks-rule-to-start-preseason?campaign=Facebook_writers_harrison

AFCN teams

Steelers #9
As with the Cardinals, slotting this team this high might make me a bit of a Positive Perry, even with running back Le'Veon Bell's two-game suspension knocking the Steelers down two spots for now. The good news: Bell is healthy, second-year pro Martavis Bryant should know what he's doing out there at receiver from Day 1 of camp and the secondary simply cannot be worse than it was last year. So there you go.

Bengals #10
As we head into Week 1 of the preseason, everyone is going to want to know if the Bengals will be bungling yet another playoff game come January. Bear in mind, however, that Cincinnati was loaded with the walking wounded during that playoff loss to the Colts last season, much like the Chiefs in that crazy wild-card game in the 2013 playoffs. It's hard to win when Andy Dalton is throwing the ball to big-time targets like Ryan Hewitt, Kevin Brock and Rex Burkhead. On that note, methinks tight end Tyler Eifert's return to health will be a huge boost to the prospects of both Dalton and the team.

Ravens #13
Baltimore might be the one team people are forgetting about, given that most prognosticators see the AFC North coming down to the Steelers and Bengals. Even with Haloti Ngata in Detroit, there is so much young talent on the Ravens' defense that it should be the best unit in the division. The real question lies with the youth in the passing game. How pro-ready will rookies Breshad Perriman and Maxx Williams be?

Browns #30
Funny how those league observers and fans who wrote off 21-year-old Johnny Manziel are talking him up now ... when he's 22. Maybe we should give people a chance to grow up. Meanwhile, good buddy and NFL Media colleague Marc Sessler (@MarcSesslerNFL) is at Browns camp; he let me know that first-round pick Danny Shelton is tearing it up and that coach Mike Pettine has a copy of the Warren Report. Shelton and the Warren Report. Interesting. One can probably eat three truckloads of baloney -- and the other literally is three truckloads of baloney.

I find this more down to earth than the nutbags that were putting the Ravens at #1 earlier in the offseason. I agree with almost everything Harrison says in the comment sections (for the AFCN teams at least). I won't be surprised whatsoever if the Ravens have the best defense in the AFCN, and one of the best in the league, people are exaggerating their losses on the defensive side waaay too much. Pittsburgh was supposed to be having a "down year" last season according to everybody and their mothers, yet they won the division, so they still deserve to be the top team in rankings since they didn't lose many significant pieces. The Bengals have a very solid team but they have a hard time overcoming large numbers of injuries and winning in the playoffs in general. The Browns are...the Browns.

Not a very thorough piece in terms of the Bengals. Sounds like the dude just needed to publish something, so he made up the safest, most vanilla analysis he could.

They failed to mention our improvements on defense, Atkins returning to full strength, Kroft and Uzomah, Hill, and many others.

The Steelers ranked first in the division is mandatory for any writer, and I think that their offense will be tough but their D will struggle, in my opinion.

I think they struggle to stop Hill and contain our TEs, not to mention having enough defenders to at least double AJ.

That said, it will be tough to stop Bell, Brown, and Bryant (I think he's better than Wheaton).

Archer could also be a nice change-of-pace weapon.

I think #10 is certainly fair for a team that has looked like the 10-12th best team in the league 4 years running.

Kroft and Uzomah are about as scary as every other mid round draft pick in the NFL right now. Why would losing our TE1 be an improvement on offense? That doesn't even make sense.

As of right now, Jermaine Gresham is absolutely better than both of our rookies combined. The last we've heard from our beat writer, Kroft was developing and transitioning slower than expected.

I feel like we could replace half of our starters with random rookies and UDFAs and certain Bengals fans would just scream "UPGRADE!!!" purely because of baseless, hypothetical potential.

(08-12-2015, 02:39 PM)djs7685 Wrote: I think #10 is certainly fair for a team that has looked like the 10-12th best team in the league 4 years running.

Kroft and Uzomah are about as scary as every other mid round draft pick in the NFL right now. Why would losing our TE1 be an improvement on offense? That doesn't even make sense.

As of right now, Jermaine Gresham is absolutely better than both of our rookies combined. The last we've heard from our beat writer, Kroft was developing and transitioning slower than expected.

I feel like we could replace half of our starters with random rookies and UDFAs and certain Bengals fans would just scream "UPGRADE!!!" purely because of baseless, hypothetical potential.

Gresham was only our #1 TE because Eifert got hurt and we had nothing else.  He hasn't been special since he got here and losing him is nothing special (which kills me because I was calling so hard for us to draft him).

Kroft looks to be a damn good and athletic tight end.  I know it's not much, but watch the leaping, one-handed grab in this video and you can see the hints of the "it" factor.  I know it's only one play, but how many players do you know can look that fluid in movements and then pull down and athletic catch like that?  Either he's very, very lucky, or he has something.

Also, being a mid-round pick is kind of a misnomer when evaluating his talent because he was the top rated TE on our board.

Uzomah appears to be developing nicely and I think he could be special if he keeps developing and improving.  

You agree on my points about our defense, though?

Our young corners stepping up, Jones looking good in camp, guys like Dawson (who I'm pumped for), Hardison, and now Derron Smith has me excited, among others.

I think they are fair ratings. Pittsburgh has the best Offense, best QB/RB/WRB in the division and they have done it before. Easy to rate them at the top.

Ravens probably about right until we get a look at them. They lost some starters and are going to lean on some rookies. But they have gotten their before as well so 13 isn't a bad spot to wait and see how they do. They also have probably the best coach in our division.

10 is perfectly fair for us since we are the best overall team in the division, but we haven't proven anything in terms of a championship.

Browns are rated too low. They are bad and will be bad but this is always a tough home 4-6 wins or so teams even when they are especially looking rotten.

I'm fine with the Steelers being ahead of us by 1 slot but both teams should be ahead of the Chiefs and Broncos.

(08-12-2015, 03:54 PM)CarolinaBengalFanGuy Wrote: They also have probably the best coach in our division.

Not really a question. He's one of the best coaches in the league.

(08-12-2015, 06:57 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Not really a question. He's one of the best coaches in the league.

Well to be fair Mike Tomlin is in our division too though I don't hold him as high as other people might. Still think he's a bit of a Cowher product

10 is a fair rating for us but I think they underrated the Browns a bit.

(08-13-2015, 04:12 PM)J24 Wrote: 10 is a fair rating for us but I think they underrated the Browns a bit.

Just because they never win 10 games doesn't mean there are the bottom 3. They just never break out of their funk. 4 - 6 wins and being tough at home is certainly better than the truly worst teams of the year.