Over the years, the AFC North was always a three-way battle between the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, and Cincinnati Bengals.
Now heading into 2019, the Cleveland Browns have finally decided to raise from the dead and now they’re the favorites to take the division. And after the fantastic offseason that they had, why shouldn’t they be?
The Browns made a power move after power move. After years upon years of embarrassment and defeat, Cleveland is now poised to win the AFC North championship and make the playoffs for the first time since 2002 — that’s 16 years without being in the postseason.
According to Bovada, the Cleveland Browns are currently the top-dogs to take the AFC North placed at +125. This is the first time that they’ve been the favorites to win the division since their return back to Ohio in the 1999 season. Behind the Browns in second place comes the Pittsburgh Steelers at +195, followed by the Baltimore Ravens in third at +275. To round out the AFC North for us in dead last, we have the Cincinnati Bengals way behind in the odds at +1600.
Let’s go over each team of the Browns, Steelers, Ravens, and Bengals and review their chances to win the AFC North in 2019.
You can read my breakdown of the AFC East, and look forward to my future breakdowns of the AFC South and AFC West. I’ll also be getting into the NFC East, NFC North, NFC South, and NFC West.
When it comes to odds, the Cleveland Browns have historically never landed the favorite position with the betting community. 2019 is the first time in history that the odds-makers have put them at the top to win the AFC North, and it’s for good reason, this isn’t your father’s Cleveland Browns.
General manager John Dorsey may have to be nominated for the 2019 NFL Executive of the Year after the offseason the Browns have had, and if he does, he’ll certainly win. Cleveland would go out and make power moves through the trade market grabbing Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon, and they would also pick up Kareem Hunt and Sheldon Richardson through free agency.
With the talent that the Browns put around second-year quarterback Baker Mayfield, Cleveland could very well be a force this year, despite how hard that may be to believe with us talking about the Browns here. But they were awesome last year by their standards, hitting a 7-8-1 record that was a drastic improvement from their recent history. Coming into a new season with Baker Mayfield starting things out for the Browns, you have to think a 10-win season is in reach for the 2019 Cleveland Browns.
A rookie head coach, has been given complete reign over the Cleveland Browns, and there’s a lot of pressure here to succeed. Not only does he have all of the resources for a winning team, but he’s been handed a franchise quarterback in Baker Mayfield — a franchise quarterback that Kitchens could win with for years upon years if he plays his cards right. If he doesn’t, faith could be lost pretty quick from ownership, the fan base, and Cleveland media.
However, with a load of potency on offense and talent on defense such as Denzel Ward, Christian Kirksey, and Myles Garrett, there’s no reason to think why the Cleveland Browns won’t win the division in 2019 — especially with a weakened Pittsburgh Steelers team, an uncertain Baltimore Ravens squad, and the dismal Cincinnati Bengals to compete against.
For the Cleveland Browns, it’s been an offseason of glory for them. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s been the exact opposite with dark days in Steel City. The Steelers organization is known for producing consistency, especially in recent years. Despite the winning 9-6-1 record last season, the consistency wasn’t there for the 2018 team, and as a result, it would see them miss the postseason.
When the offseason arrived, the Steelers would then take even more hits in the forms of losing star RB Le’Veon Bell to the New York Jets in free agency, and then would be forced to trade their top (and disgruntled, as Bell was as well) wide receiver Antonio Brown to the Oakland Raiders. They might have gotten rid of the drama, but that’s a lot of lost talent to recover from.
Fortunately for Pittsburgh, they’re an organization that always seems to have a plan and backup talent. James Conner did fantastic for the Steelers last season and is expected to have another blaze-fest in 2019, and JuJu Smith-Schuster will certainly provide plenty of productivity on his way to replace Brown. I feel like they’re good enough to replace both Bell and Brown, and if they could do so, the Steelers could see themselves back in the playoffs this season without missing a step.
The main reason for that isn’t the talent of Conner and Smith-Schuster either. I mean, they play a big part, but they aren’t the main reason. That would be veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He may be aging, but he’s still got it, and you know the motivation is there for him to have a successful season without Bell and Brown — especially for his head coach Mike Tomlin.
It’s a little bit uncertain what the 2019 campaign is going to be like for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but at +195, they’re at a good value to win the AFC North over the Cleveland Browns.
I’m going to go ahead and put my money on the Browns after the power moves they made this offseason, and they just have too much swag this season to pass up on. But still, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Steelers were the typical Steelers and ended up stealing away the AFC North. I look for it to be a possible battle between both Pittsburgh and Cleveland throughout the entire season for the division, which is going to provide extraordinary entertainment. Still, I’ll ride with Cleveland.
One of the biggest headlines out of the 2018 NFL season was the Baltimore Ravens under rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson, a magical run under the rookie that would see the Ravens in the playoffs. This year with Baltimore loaded in the run at both the quarterback and running back positions, entertainment isn’t even a word to describe the potential of quality football that Baltimore could bring us this season.
2019 will be the first full season where the keys of the franchise will be handed over to Lamar Jackson as well, this after long-time quarterback Joe Flacco was traded away to the Denver Broncos. Lamar, this is your team now. But don’t get too excited, Ravens fans. Inexperience could create some issues for Baltimore this season — they’re a young team. Not only is Jackson a second-year player, but he’ll also have to work with rookie wide receivers Miles Boykin and Marquise Brown. Some mistakes here and there from the young Ravens could cause a loss here and there that screws up their chances for the AFC North.
Baltimore would take a couple of hits in the offseason on defense with the loss of both Eric Weddle and Terrell Suggs in free agency, but general manager Eric DeCosta and company would recover a bit with the acquisitions of Shane Ray, Earl Thomas, and Jaylon Ferguson.
And here’s the biggest positive for the Ravens entering 2019: They have a remotely light schedule, and with that being said, Baltimore certainly has the talent to take advantage and still produce a winning record.
As a result, a risk wouldn’t be bad to take on this team at +275 to steal the AFC North from both the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh man, this division is going to be so much fun this year.
The Cincinnati Bengals are going to be a confusing team as far as how exactly they will do this season. Years overdue, the Bengals finally decided to let go of long-time head coach Marvin Lewis and replaced him with Zac Taylor — a product of Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay. Despite the confusion, one thing is for certain with Cincinnati: With Taylor being an expert on the offensive side of the ball, you can expect the Bengals to move the ball down the field more smoothly this season.
That could potentially create a potent offense with the likes of Andy Dalton, A.J. Green, Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd on the roster. Points won’t be an issue for Cincinnati to come by this season.
Their defense is, well, I’ll just be blunt with it: It’s horrible. They were statistically ranked as one of the worst defenses in the National Football League last season. If Cincinnati hopes to grab a few wins this season, a good portion of them may have to come in shootout fashion. They’ll have no problem scoring, but all the problem in the world in stopping the opposition, especially considering there was zero improvements in the offseason.
Another negative that the Bengals have against them entering the 2019 campaign is their tough schedule. In the first eight weeks of the season, they have a total of five road games. They do get a bye week after that stretch, but things could be really bad for Cincinnati by that point — and things will probably be bad for the Bengals from the get-go. I would keep my money away from this team, they won’t be a factor at all in the race for the AFC North. This team is a heavy +1600 long-shot for a reason, and that’s because they’ll finish dead last in the division — by far.
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