The mighty AFC North — consistently one of the best divisions in football — has come back to earth in a season where many expected it could send three teams to the playoffs. So what happened? Glad you asked.
Quarterback Play
The Steelers weren’t exactly expecting to play Mason Rudolph this year. They definitely weren’t prepared to play someone named Devlin Hodges at quarterback. Losing Ben Roethlisberger — one of the better quarterbacks in the entire NFL — hurt the division as a whole. Lamar Jackson was an MVP candidate after the first few weeks, but he’s come back to earth a bit in the past few games. Andy Dalton has always been a product of the players around him. There’s a reason the Dalton line was created by Around the NFL. This year, the players around Dalton haven’t been great and Cincinnati’s offensive line has been bad as well. Baker Mayfield has to be one of the biggest disappointments in the league as of now. He looks lost, fades back to his right when there’s pressure, and has more turnovers than touchdown passes so far. Remember, the Browns added weapons this offseason and Mayfield still doesn’t look great. The offensive line hasn’t helped him at all.
Coaching
The Freddie Kitchens hire was praised by a lot of people who know what they are talking about. Those people may have missed as Kitchens looks to be in a bit over his head. He’s an offensive coach but the offense has been the Browns problem. He’s also not letting Todd Monken call plays which is a bit odd.
Zac Taylor is one of the three rookie coaches who haven’t won a single game yet. The Bengals offense has shown some flashes, but Taylor is a product of the McVay tree. The Bengals haven’t been Ram-like at all.
Those two coaches are really the biggest issues in the division. John Harbaugh is using more analytics and going for two and going for fourth down. He hasn’t made any huge mistakes. Mike Tomlin did choose to kick in the last game, but that worked out. Tomlin can’t really be to blame for the Steelers injuries but he could be to blame for keeping Keith Butler as around as defensive coordinator for so long.
Too Much Hype
This isn’t exactly the division’s fault, but it’s a reason that the AFC North is considered one of the worst in football. We were fed a ton of hype. Expectations were high. The Browns had good odds to win the Super Bowl. The Steelers were going to compete as one of the top teams in the conference. The Ravens were going to take a step forward and they won the division last year. Even the Bengals were considered a solid team.
Instead the Browns have underperformed immensely. A good team on paper has not translated to a good team on the field. The Steelers lack weapons on offense. Losing Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell will do that — even if they were distractions and locker room problems. The Ravens somehow amped up their hype against bad teams and now look a bit more beat-able. The Bengals have just been bad.
Not Enough Depth
The Bengals and Browns lack depth on their offensive line. Funnily enough, the Ravens lack depth in their defensive backfield. The Steelers lack depth at quarterback and wide receiver. All of these teams used to have a strong middle class on their roster or enough stars and playmakers to make up for depth issues. That’s not the case this year.
Defensive slides
The AFC North used to be known as a division where teams beat each other up. Scoring was near impossible. If you liked traditional football, defensive struggles and establishing the run, you loved the AFC North.
Now everyone has slid except the Steelers who are currently at seventh in DVOA. The Browns have the 15th ranked defense by DVOA. The Bengals have a veteran-laden defensive unit, but they are 31st in the NFL in defensive DVOA. The biggest drop comes from the Ravens. They are always a top defensive team in the NFL. Now they lack good safety play — and it’s about to get worse since Tony Jefferson is out the rest of the year and Earl Thomas is a shell of his former self — and are having communication issues on defense. Baltimore is carried by its offense now.
Overall performance
The Ravens are the best team in the division right now. They don’t match up with the Patriots or Chiefs. They may even be an underdog against the Texans on a neutral field. They might be even with the Cowboys or Eagles. The Rams, Niners, Saints, and Packers are all currently better than Baltimore.
After Baltimore, the rest of the division slides compared to the middle of the pack in most divisions. There isn’t a second playoff team — by current performance — in the AFC North as of now.
The only other option for the worst division in football is probably the AFC East. There’s a problem though. The Bills are currently better than the Browns or Steelers. The Patriots are better than the Ravens. Yes, the Jets stink as of now, but they get the benefit of the doubt since they haven’t had their starting quarterback in Week 1. I’d rather take the Jets with Darnold than the Steelers with Devlin Hodges. The Dolphins are bad, but so are the Bengals right now. It’s close, I’ll admit that, but the AFC East didn’t have the hype of the AFC North. That’s the problem.
