CBS Sports released their four burning questions for the AFC North. In Pittsburgh it was “is Ben going to be healthy”, Baltimore it was “can Lamar win his first playoff game”, Cleveland it was “can Baker make the leap to become the franchise QB” and in Cincinnati it was “is Joe Burrow the real deal.” I am not sure who came up with these but it seemed sloppy. I reached out to my friends acquaintances who are die hard fans of each of these teams and asked them the same question. Here is what I got:
Pittsburgh Steelers – Can Ben play at a high level still? If he goes down or is not healthy enough then who will be the backup? Is Duck dead? Did Rudolph make strides? When will they address this position for the future? Thanks to @bbak82 for your input! My take: Clearly fans are worried about the QB spot and rightly so. Big Ben has been a fixture for so long that now there is questions on who the successor will be. I really thought they would draft a QB early given Ben’s health and lack of quality backup depth.
Baltimore Ravens – Can this team win the Super Bowl and has the defense improved enough to match the offense? Expectations are high in Baltimore and even last season they were stunned that they were not playing the Chiefs in the AFC Championship. They were stunned but a white hot Titans team and it appeared that for at least one game they figured out Lamar Jackson. That defense could not stop Henry who had 30 carries and 195 yards. Tannehill only passed for 88 yards but threw 2 TDs and only completed 7-14 throws. This loser didn’t want a shoutout and doesn’t have Twitter. My take: The Ravens are going to be really good again and will win the AFC North. If Lamar stays healthy they will be in it but some great NFL defensive minds have been examining him all offseason to stop him specifically. The defense is still suspect and losing a guy like Marshal Yanda is irreplaceable on that offensive line.
Cleveland Browns – The Browns have a new head coach again. Will less expectations be good for the Browns this year after coming in as the hot team in 2019 only to come up short once again? I believe this is a put up or shut up year for Baker. Thanks to @dougieV99 for you input! My take: I couldn’t agree more with all of those points. The instability with the coaches cannot be easy on schemes/techniques and messaging. I think there are still high expectations for the Browns because they talk so much smack. Winning the offseason doesn’t get you a Lombardi, I don’t think that franchise has learned that yet. Lastly, it is a huge year for Baker. Sometimes he looks great and other times he looks like Tim Couch, he confuses me and if he doesn’t take a big step this year the Browns could be looking to the draft again.
Cincinnati Bengals – Can the Bengals show tangible big steps from their 2019 season? This is not just wins/losses but this is in areas like: LB coverage skills, offensive line pressure allowance, running game back on track early, winning primetime games and being competitive all season. I think that it fair to say the expectations are not incredibly high to make the playoffs. Let’s be realistic and say 7-8 wins would be a great turnaround. We won’t know if Joe Burrow is the real deal until 2-3 seasons into this thing so let’s cool off and make team progress. Brought to you by @gm_bengals.