AFC North ranked toughest division in league by NFL.com

[fredtoast]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000648863/article/2016-nfl-division-power-rankings

1. AFC North: The expected resurgence of the Ravens gives the division three legitimate contenders, not to mention three bona fide human starting quarterbacks now that Andy has obliterated the Dalton Scale. The schedule won't help the Browns.

[*Awful Llama*]

When does anything help the Browns?

The comment section made my head hurt.

[leonardfan40]

I'm really not buying into the Ravens hype, they're average if healthy and bad if not

[NATI BENGALS]

(03-30-2016, 09:48 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: I'm really not buying into the Ravens hype, they're average if healthy and bad if not

6 of their losses were by 5 points or fewer. I wouldn't over look them too much. Flacco and Steve Smith back, Mike Wallace, their first round pick from last year, supposedly the best TE in the draft last year... If they get that offense going which is bound to happen, those 6 losses turn in to 6 wins and all of a sudden they are an 11 win team.

[leonardfan40]

(03-30-2016, 11:01 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: 6 of their losses were by 5 points or fewer. I wouldn't over look them too much. Flacco and Steve Smith back, Mike Wallace, their first round pick from last year, supposedly the best TE in the draft last year... If they get that offense going which is bound to happen, those 6 losses turn in to 6 wins and all of a sudden they are an 11 win team.

That's a ridiculous argument really, and that's not just to take a shot at you because everyone keeps using it including the media. They won 5 games and NONE of them were by more than 6 points. They could just as easily have had 0 wins as 11. Flacco is coming off injury and isn't that great to begin with, smith is another year older and coming off injury, their line is terrible, who are their RB's? If T-rich is gonna save them they're in trouble, they're an 8 win team at best and my bet is they'll end up back around 4-6 wins again next year. Happens every year, media picks a team that is mediocre at best and decides they'll be great and fans everywhere buy into it without bothering to look at a roster that is nothing special. 

[Brownshoe]

The AFC north is always one of the toughest if not the toughest divisions in the league. If the Ravens are healthy next year they should be good too.

[Crowe]

(03-30-2016, 08:20 PM)fredtoast Wrote: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000648863/article/2016-nfl-division-power-rankings

1. AFC North: The expected resurgence of the Ravens gives the division three legitimate contenders, not to mention three bona fide human starting quarterbacks now that Andy has obliterated the Dalton Scale. The schedule won't help the Browns.

As it should be.

[WeezyBengal]

(03-30-2016, 09:48 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: I'm really not buying into the Ravens hype, they're average if healthy and bad if not

Agree with this. 

[WeezyBengal]

(03-30-2016, 11:21 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: That's a ridiculous argument really, and that's not just to take a shot at you because everyone keeps using it including the media. They won 5 games and NONE of them were by more than 6 points. They could just as easily have had 0 wins as 11. Flacco is coming off injury and isn't that great to begin with, smith is another year older and coming off injury, their line is terrible, who are their RB's? If T-rich is gonna save them they're in trouble, they're an 8 win team at best and my bet is they'll end up back around 4-6 wins again next year. Happens every year, media picks a team that is mediocre at best and decides they'll be great and fans everywhere buy into it without bothering to look at a roster that is nothing special. 

Agree with this. 

[BernLock]

I love all the people bitching about the nfc and afc west. I'm sorry but Seattle scares nobody anymore. Cardinals are great but 49ers are a joke. The afc west?? The Chiefs suck. They had a ridiculously easy schedule and ran off a ton of wins like they should have. And hen when they played a good team in the playoffs?? Got spanked. The Broncos don't have a quarterback. There's no way you can project them to be any good when there's so many question marks around the most important position in sports

[XenoMorph]

Really the AFCN didnt have a strong standings showing last season. as a division on a whole. But No division is excited to see the AFCN on their rotation that year.

[SFmajor]

Only problem with being in the highest power ranking is that we're going give each other bloody noses. We arrive to the play offs a bit worse for wear.

[WeezyBengal]

(03-31-2016, 10:31 AM)BernLock Wrote: I love all the people bitching about the nfc and afc west. I'm sorry but Seattle scares nobody anymore. Cardinals are great but 49ers are a joke. The afc west?? The Chiefs suck. They had a ridiculously easy schedule and ran off a ton of wins like they should have. And hen when they played a good team in the playoffs?? Got spanked. The Broncos don't have a quarterback. There's no way you can project them to be any good when there's so many question marks around the most important position in sports

Didn't the Broncos have those same question marks about quarterback last year? How did that turn out for them? 

[WeezyBengal]

(03-31-2016, 10:32 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: Really the AFCN didnt have a strong standings showing last season. as a division on a whole.  But No division is excited to see the AFCN on their rotation that year.

AFC North banged each other up last year. 

[Benton]

I dunno.

I'm a homer, so obviously I think the Bengals are stout. But the Ravens were just terrible last year and I didn't see any flashes of that changing. Both their lines are bad and that doesn't get fixed in a year. Flacco is serviceable and Smith was surprisingly good, but the ugly fact is significant injuries at his age for skills guys are usually the end.

The Steelers beat us, but they shouldn't have. They weren't a very good team either time. Their offense is strong, but not enough to put teams away. Their defense used to be their calling card, now it's just a bunch of average to bad players trying not to draw flags. If I remember right, they drew the most defensive penalty yards of anybody last season, which is just sloppy (to be fair, I think we were about five spots behind them, so we've got work to do there, too). Dupree might be big next season, but they're going to have to have some of that backfield step up. With the league moving more towards QB protection, you can't be the second worst pass defense team and scare anyone.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

Don't know why the AFCN shouldn't be right there at the top with the AFCW looking much weaker and the NFCW
looking bad besides the Cards. Some of you guys looking past the Ravens are forgetting about a couple of up and
coming players on both sides of the ball...

Brandon Williams DT and Max Williams TE, these guys will be good. A great DT helps out the entire Defense and
a big talented TE helps out their mediocre QB big time.

The Steelers will be tough once again, we all know that. We should sweep them eventually, it seems we are on the
verge of taking this rivalry over but until we actually do it...

Tell me a tougher Division...

[RiverRat13]

(03-30-2016, 11:21 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: That's a ridiculous argument really, and that's not just to take a shot at you because everyone keeps using it including the media. They won 5 games and NONE of them were by more than 6 points. They could just as easily have had 0 wins as 11. 

That's a great point.  They ended up 5-8 in games decided by eight points or less, which isn't too far out of what you'd expect.  Football Outsiders have them as the 17th best team last year, which seems about right to me.  Losing Flacco wasn't that big of a deal as FO had him as the 28th best QB in the league in 2015.  I think they are a 7-9 win team next year.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(03-30-2016, 11:21 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: That's a ridiculous argument really, and that's not just to take a shot at you because everyone keeps using it including the media. They won 5 games and NONE of them were by more than 6 points. They could just as easily have had 0 wins as 11. Flacco is coming off injury and isn't that great to begin with, smith is another year older and coming off injury, their line is terrible, who are their RB's? If T-rich is gonna save them they're in trouble, they're an 8 win team at best and my bet is they'll end up back around 4-6 wins again next year. Happens every year, media picks a team that is mediocre at best and decides they'll be great and fans everywhere buy into it without bothering to look at a roster that is nothing special. 

Cannot look past the Ravens man.

They were DECIMATED by injuries last season. Will be a completely different team this year.

[BengalFanInNJ]

The Ravens are making the playoffs this year.

Along with the Bengals and Steelers (unfortunately).

[fredtoast]

Ravens are not a really good team, but they are not garbage either.  Last year their offense was in the top half of the league (14th), and they had a top 10 defense (8th).