Just how good is the AFC North ?

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(05-06-2020, 11:58 AM)Sled21 Wrote: I'm not that impressed with the Ravens. If the new backers shut down the run lanes for Lamar that's half of Baltimore's game.

It's really not.

If you take away every single one of Lamar's rushing yards, the 2019 Ravens STILL have the 7th running game in the league to go with their 4th overall/3rd scoring ranked defense. (And the best kicker in the league.)

The Ravens right now are a complete team.

(05-06-2020, 12:15 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: It's wishful thinking, LJ hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. Russell Wilson runs around plenty and hasn't had any problems. Not every QB is going to end up like RG3.

Wilson recognized the danger and changed his game early on to specifically avoid taking extra hits while running in order to extend his career. He's a pretty prolific QB slider (maybe because he was both a college and minor league baseball player?). 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000993462/article/mike-vick-to-lamar-jackson-proceed-with-caution

Quote:Some signal-callers own an uncanny ability to avoid taking huge shots. Russell Wilson is the preeminent player in this regard, always seeming to get down or out of trouble before the defender can land a big blow.

You can run as a QB, you just can't take the extra hits. Even Newton who is built like a superhero eventually started falling apart well before a normal QB would have. His style might cost him 8 years of career length, because QBs like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady played at a high level to age 40, and Drew Brees is still tearing it up into his 40s. Rodgers is heading into his age 37 season. I just don't see any running QB being able to do that. Just look at what happened to Andrew Luck when he didn't learn to avoid taking extra hits.