The landscape in AFCN has changed drastically in the past year. The Bengals wound up in the cellar but with their injuries it was more than expected. Will the Steelers have a lingering hangover from the drama of last year? Will Baltimore be able to find success when they lost so many starters on defense and had Lamar Jackson exposed by SD. Will the Browns be able to assimilate the talent into a wining combination. I believe our chances are as good as any other because our division is basically weak. There isn't much hope for any team in our division to go deep into the playoffs.

The Browns have the best team on paper, so I’d say the division is theirs to lose.

I will never count out the Steelers while Ben is still there.

It’s probably between us and the Ravens for the basement. Jackson certainly looked awful in the playoffs, but then again so has Dalton.

Taylor is obviously the biggest wild card in all of this.

You mean you don't think the Browns will be a Super Bowl contender. They are going to be the consensus pre-season Cinderella story. But there are so many unknowns so its anybody's guess.

Steelers aren't getting better. Without AB we held them to 16 points. And unless Lamar Jackson has learned to throw and how to avoid taking hits Baltimore will struggle. So yes, I think we can contend. But going into the season the rankings will be Browns, Steelers, Ravens and then us.

I think we can, but not sure we will. This year. I think there will be growing pains along the offensive line and the LB corp, even with new additions via the draft mixed in with what we have as of now. Throw in a new coaching staff, some of which may or may not be a good fit and may only be here a year until they can be replaced. I think year one will be a feeling-out period with not only the roster, but the coaching staff as well. We could surprise, but unless they hit an absolute home run in the draft, I see this as a 6-7 win team.

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I think the division will end up being kind of like the AFC South and NFC East were for a little while... if you can get to 8-9 wins, you've got a chance.

(04-05-2019, 01:49 PM)Catmandude123 Wrote: The landscape in AFCN has changed drastically in the past year. The Bengals wound up in the cellar but with their injuries it was more than expected. Will the Steelers have a lingering hangover from the drama of last year? Will Baltimore be able to find success when they lost so many starters on defense and had Lamar Jackson exposed by SD. Will the Browns be able to assimilate the talent into a wining combination. I believe our chances are as good as any other because our division is basically weak. There isn't much hope for any team in our division to go deep into the playoffs.

The Stains are being set up to fall. Adding OBJ to go along with Mayfield could really blow up in their face. Diva stain city over there, should be okay though and win around half their games. The Steelers losing Brown and Bell could hurt or help them i don't know, i can never count them out but us not having a Steeler fan as our HC anymore that lost to them most of the time helps us IMO.

Not impressed by Lamar Jackson throwing the football. The Ravens D should be good though.

I think with us now having an offensive minded coach who will not sabotage our Offense and a new DC and LB coach we will do more than just compete. I expect us to beat the Steelers atleast once this year under Taylor, sweep the Ravens and split with the Stains.

Like other have said, I absolutely believe we can compete for the Division crown. Not because we are a great team, but because the division seems to be weak.

Yes, but because while one team improved on paper (Browns), the Steelers and Ravens got worse. We lost to Ravens once and Steelers twice, a healthy 2019 can go 4-0 against them this year in my humble opinion.

I won’t buy into the Browns until I see them win. The Browns added a lot of names in win now mode but if they don’t come out of the gate winning I could easily see them collapsing. With the Steelers you just never know. They seem close to implosion themselves.

The Ravens lost most of their better players and leaders on D and unless Lamar learns how to win from the pocket I think they struggle because they will not be able to smoke and mirror their way through again.

If the new scheme hits home and the Bengals stay healthy I for sure think they will compete. Getting a couple good pieces in the draft will help but I think it’s all going to come down to the coaches and how their schemes work.

In the end I think the division is wide open.

I think they can compete depending how the draft goes. They need to have at least two immediate solid-or-better starters to come from the draft. Hard to see the OL and LBs being worse than last year.

(04-05-2019, 04:53 PM)Junglejuice Wrote: I won’t buy into the Browns until I see them win. The Browns added a lot of names in win now mode but if they don’t come out of the gate winning I could easily see them collapsing. With the Steelers you just never know. They seem close to implosion themselves.

The Ravens lost most of their better players and leaders on D and unless Lamar learns how to win from the pocket I think they struggle because they will not be able to smoke and mirror their way through again.

If the new scheme hits home and the Bengals stay healthy I for sure think they will compete. Getting a couple good pieces in the draft will help but I think it’s all going to come down to the coaches and how their schemes work.

In the end I think the division is wide open.

Great post Jungle Juice, haven't seen you around here for awhile man...

(04-05-2019, 01:58 PM)pally Wrote: You mean you don't think the Browns will be a Super Bowl contender.  They are going to be the consensus pre-season Cinderella story.  But there are so many unknowns so its anybody's guess.  

Steelers aren't getting better.  Without AB we held them to 16 points.  And unless Lamar Jackson has learned to throw and how to avoid taking hits Baltimore will struggle.  So yes, I think we can contend.  But going into the season the rankings will be Browns, Steelers, Ravens and then us.

Even if they aren't a SB contender, they swept the Bengals last year and then got significantly better in the offseason. The Bengals didn't.

The Steelers probably aren't getting better, but once again, they swept the Bengals, and the Bengals big offseason move was to bring back Bobby Hart.

Lamar Jackson didn't know how to throw and the Ravens still beat the Bengals last year. Bengals only beat the Ravens early in the season when Flacco was around.

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I'm not sure I see where the confidence the Bengals can compete is coming from. This is the same team that has three straight losing seasons, went 1-5 in the division last year, and whose star FA acquisitions were a 4th-5th string CB and a guard who is only a little better than Alex Redmond.

(04-05-2019, 04:53 PM)Junglejuice Wrote: I won’t buy into the Browns until I see them win. The Browns added a lot of names in win now mode but if they don’t come out of the gate  winning I could easily see them collapsing.   With the Steelers you just never know.   They seem close to implosion themselves.

The Ravens lost most of their better players and leaders on D and unless Lamar learns how to win from the pocket I think they struggle because they will not be able to smoke and mirror their way through again.

If the new scheme hits home and the Bengals stay healthy I for sure think they will compete. Getting a couple good pieces in the draft will help but I think it’s all going to come down to the coaches and how their schemes work.

In the end I think the division is wide open.

I think all 4 teams in the AFCN end up at 8-8 ;-)

(04-05-2019, 01:54 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: The Browns have the best team on paper, so I’d say the division is theirs to lose.

We did too in 2010 and look how that year turned out? 

The Steelers are going to stink.

The browns will win the first four games by a combined 300-12... And then they'll be the browns again, do something stupid like switch QBs and bomb the rest of the season.

The Ravens might struggle early but I think they'll be solid down the stretch.

(04-06-2019, 11:30 AM)GodFather Wrote: We did too in 2010 and look how that year turned out? 

TO > OBJ

There... I said it.

(04-06-2019, 11:04 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Even if they aren't a SB contender, they swept the Bengals last year and then got significantly better in the offseason. The Bengals didn't.

The Steelers probably aren't getting better, but once again, they swept the Bengals, and the Bengals big offseason move was to bring back Bobby Hart.

Lamar Jackson didn't know how to throw and the Ravens still beat the Bengals last year. Bengals only beat the Ravens early in the season when Flacco was around.

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I'm not sure I see where the confidence the Bengals can compete is coming from. This is the same team that has three straight losing seasons, went 1-5 in the division last year, and whose star FA acquisitions were a 4th-5th string CB and a guard who is only a little better than Alex Redmond.

The Bengals big off season move was to clean house with the coaching staff. How they do remains to be seen but I can't get on board with pretending there isn't a decent amount of talent on this team.

But yeah... Bobby Hart.

Honestly have to see what happens in the draft. We need a RT and a 3 down LB to compete. I don't see why we can't compete if those positions are solidified.

The Bengals skill players can compete with most of the teams in the entire NFL. It will come down to coaching, health, and playmakers making plays.

(04-06-2019, 12:15 PM)jason Wrote: The Bengals big off season move was to clean house with the coaching staff. How they do remains to be seen but I can't get on board with pretending there isn't a decent amount of talent on this team.

But yeah... Bobby Hart.

It is the same talent that they have had for the last three straight losing seasons, just three years older now.

Also keep in mind that we as fans tend to overrate the players on our team. (Everyone does it for their team, it's not Bengals-fan exclusive. There were some crazy Patriots fans saying Julian Edelman > AJ Green relatively recently.)

They haven't drafted a single Pro Bowler in the last 5 years. The only Pro Bowler they have drafted in the last 7 years was Tyler Eifert, who has started 5 games in the last 3 years. Then you tack on their FA approach and it's not a recipe for success.

While they do have some talent, I would point out that it's nowhere near as much as we like to think. A lot of that talent has gotten older/left, and simply not been replaced with equal levels of talent.

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EDIT: It's not an end-all-be-all metric of talent, obviously, but the Bengals only have 6 Pro Bowlers on their entire roster by my count...

Andy Dalton
AJ Green
Geno Atkins
Carlos Dunlap
Kevin Huber (yes, he got in once)
Tyler Eifert (and proceeded to get hurt there too)

The only player on that list under the age of 30 is Tyler Eifert (2019 will be his age 29 season), and as stated previously, he's made 5 starts the last 3 years.

They only have a single 1st Team All-Pro on their entire roster, and that's Geno Atkins and he turned 31 a couple days ago.