Welcome back to my eight-part preview series for the 2023 NFL season. Up next is the AFC North Division Preview. This division consists of the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. From upgrading their receiving crops to the growth of a young quarterback, this division is definitely going to be worth monitoring.
If you missed out on my coverage of the AFC East, you can find it here.
Let’s see what’s going on with these four teams and where I have them finishing this year.
1) Cincinnati Bengals (12-5)
When your franchise quarterback gets sacked 41 times last year, you have to do something. For the Bengals, there was no way they were entering 2023 without getting protection for Joe Burrow.
So, what do they do? Go out and sign left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. A former Chief, he will finally provide stability and trust to protect Burrow’s blind side.
Joe Mixon is back on a restructured contract, but will have to remain healthy more than ever with the loss of Samaje Perine. The RB1 job is clearly his, but question marks lie behind him depth-wise.
Of course, the best receiving trio in the NFL remains. Ja’Maar Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd are poised to help Burrow eclipse 4,000 passing yards once again. 5,000 isn’t out of the question either.
Defensively, Cincinnati’s front four looks pretty solid. Trey Hendrickson leads the way after an eight-sack season. First-round pick Myles Murphy strengthens this group as the defensive end will look to make an impact early.
The linebacking corps and secondary are solid themselves too. Cornerbacks Chidobe Awuzie and Cam Taylor-Britt may not be the sexiest names. But, those two are good enough to hold things down for the orange and black.
Even with improvements from their division rivals, the Bengals remain my favorite to take the division. Can they repeat their magic from last year and make the AFC Championship Game? I believe they can, and it will just be a matter of making another Super Bowl appearance.
2) Baltimore Ravens (10-7)
There is no more excuses for this offense. If Lamar Jackson cannot get it done with this group of weapons, there will be question marks. Seriously.
Rashod Bateman. Odell Beckham Jr. 2023 first-round pick Zay Flowers. The speedster Devin Duvernay as a fourth wideout. Tight end Mark Andrews. What more do you want?
If fully healthy, Jackson needs to throw for at least 3,500 yards if he wants to be considered a top ten quarterback. I embrace dual-threat quarterbacks, but I could care less about his rushing ability right now. His arm has always been a concern since being drafted and it still is despite his 2019 MVP campaign. That is a thing of the past, and he needs to focus on staying healthy.
Maybe running the ball with your running backs would help, John Harbaugh? Who am I kidding? Even that is a concern. J.K Dobbins has struggled to stay healthy. If he gets hurt again, trusting Gus Edwards and Justice Hill is fine but not great.
The offensive line isn’t too bad. If anything, left guard is a concern with sixth-rounder Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu slated to start.
Defensively, things will be solid. Odafe Oweh will look to grow and improve from a 2022 season that saw him just register three sacks. Rock Ya-Sin comes from the Raiders to provide stability opposite of Marlon Humphrey at cornerback. Kyle Hamilton and Marcus Williams are a safety duo worth monitoring too.
Even though they won’t win the division, a playoff spot is what they will achieve in 2023. How far they’ll make it is the only question. If week 17 comes around and Lamar Jackson isn’t on the field, a wild card exit is inevitable.
3) Pittsburgh Steelers (9-8)
A win over the Cincinnati Bengals in week one gave Steelers fans hope 2022 would be a successful one. Boy, was that far from the truth.
Maybe I am stretching it a little. Pittsburgh finished the season 7-2 to finish 9-8 on the year. But, those early season losses make you wonder if the Steelers could have made some noise in the playoffs last year.
Regardless, there is plenty of optimism under head coach MIke Tomlin. The growth of quarterback Kenny Pickett will come, and his chemistry with wide receiver George Pickens will be the key. Diontae Johnson looks to bounce back from a subpar 2022. I am excited to see how involved Calvin Austin III will be, as his speed could open up things for this offense.
Najee Harris ran for another 1,000 yards once again, and he’ll be depended on once more to make Pickett’s life easier.
Defensively, they’ll be formidable. First-rounder Joey Porter Jr. has fans excited with his potential, and will line opposite of cornerback Levi Wallace to start the year. If T.J Watt can just stay healthy, everything will be okay. 5.5 sacks in ten games? Imagine a full season (you don’t have to. He had 22.5 in 15 games in 2021).
With Watt and Cameron Hayward, the pass rush looks good. Health is just the main concern.
There’s no way this team will finish under nine wins. Their schedule and head coach will make sure that doesn’t happen. Can they get to 10 or even 11? I don’t see them winning the division, but a playoff spot looks reasonable.
4) Cleveland Browns (6-11)
I can’t do it. I just can’t. It doesn’t matter if Deshaun Watson had a full off-season to prepare for 2023. The Browns are the Browns.
Yes, Nick Chubb will have another solid season. Amari Cooper is still a solid WR1, and acquiring Elijah Moore gives another weapon for Watson to work with.
Defensively, Myles Garrett is still a beast. Dalvin Tomlinson will create havoc up the middle, and Za’Darius Smith just came off a ten sack season with the Vikings. Denzel Ward has things locked down at cornerback.
But, there’s this feeling I have. Are they better than the Bengals, Ravens, or Steelers? It’s hard to make that argument. I worry about Watson and his ability to captain this offense. In the six games we saw the quarterback play last year, he was just “okay”. Jacoby Brissett was the better quarterback for the team, and he’s gone.
They could prove me wrong and somehow make the playoffs. In my opinion, the Watson trade will be a mistake this team will struggle to deal with for this season and beyond.
Thank you for reading! Make sure to visit Belly Up Sports every week and follow me on Twitter! The Case and Nate Show is live on YouTube and Spotify, so check me out there too!
Featured image by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
3 Comments
I get it if you don’t like the Browns, but when your analysis of the team leads with The Browns are the Browns…. really?
Are you this lazy or this biased?
If you actually think this roster is going 6-11, can you at least give a legitimate set of football arguments for why? Or do you just not actually know the team so you have to abbreviate?
The team went 7-10 last year and the defense was directly responsible for 4 of the losses. You take a horrible D Line (excluding Myles of course) and you add Smith, Tomlinson, Harris, Okoronkwo, Hurst, Ika, and Hill to it. You add a proven D coordinator who knows exactly how to make his defense run through the front 4. You add Thornhill and McCleod. The defense is not a small upgrade. It’s one of the largest jumps of any group on any team during the offseason. Any unbiased analysis is going to put the Browns D Line in the top 10 and many would put it top 5 now.
As for the offense, you bolster the receivers with Moore, Akins, and Tillman while keeping Amari, DPJ, and Njoku. Chubb remains and will simply get a larger snap count now that Hunt is gone.
Which of course brings us to Watson. Drop your “the brown are cursed” narrative for a second and riddle me this: A 3 time pro-bowler who is 27 and not coming back from injury has to take 2 years off from playing. Which is more likely, that he forgot how to play and is now ruined and is an average or below average QB? Or is it more likely that last year he had to be away from his team and the facility for 11 games, came back and had some rust, the Browns offense struggled to switch midseason to the offense Stefanski wanted to run with DW from the Jacoby installation and then struggled again when Stefanski decided to just go back to the Jacoby offense and hope Watson could run it when it wasn’t really suited for him. Cmon. We’ve got QBs playing at 40 nowadays and shredding and a 27yr old is washed? He’s had the entire offseason to get on the same page with Stefanski. They’ve installed the offense, built the chemistry and are ready to hit the ground running. It only takes 2 minutes of googling to find out how good Watson is looking.
The Browns will make the playoffs this year. But it shouldn’t surprise anyone who understands football.
Noted. We’ll see what happens this season.
I mean, I agree with the author’s prediction. 6-11 is a fair record considering a number of factors. 1) The Browns are not better than the Steelers, Bengals, and Ravens. 2) For the past five years or so, Cleveland has finished 3rd or 4th in the division, consistently feeding off of the leftovers of their division rivals. Until they prove otherwise, it’s fair to think this. 3) Deshaun Watson is an overhyped wash-up hasn’t showed promise in years. Baker Mayfield is the best QB the Browns have had since Kosar, and until you realize that you don’t understand football either. 4) The Browns are indeed the Browns. Coming from a Raiders fan, it’s ok to acknowledge that you suck once in a while. What does get annoying however, is when people like us try to talk about how good we’ll be when we have nothing to back it up. Acknowledge that the Browns are a miserable franchise (like my Raiders) and you’ll be a much happier person.