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Ravens have Flacco, Boldin, Mason, Rice, Heap, Reed, Ray Ray, and still a highly respected defense despite having no reliable corners.
Steelers have Ward, Wallace, Mendenhall, Miller, Polomalu, Hampton, Harrison, and Roethlisberger after 4 weeks, and is a well transformed offensive threat to other teams.
Bengals have Palmer, T.O., Ochocinco, Benson, Scott, Malaluga, and a well transformed defense and starting to get their act back together... maybe.
Browns have Cribbs, and well, nobody else other than Brandon McDonald who was a dummy and proposed a flip in a brown white scrimmage that made him twist his ankle and who knows now, but the Browns still have nothing. The only good they are is that other teams that play the AFC North Division look forward to a win.
Plus, all four teams have very well known NFL coaches. Tomlin, Lewis, Manginni, and Harbaugh.
The Bengals have just now started to fit into the divisions defensive mind set, and the Steelers and Ravens are moving on too offense because they already have their set on defense, and are only afraid to face eachother in their own division, and focus more on teams like beating the colts in the playoffs, or the patriots in 3 weeks.
I honestly don't believe the Bengals will sweep the division again, because they were 4-6 outside of the division. The Bengals only hope on making the playoffs was only possible if they studied the whole season on how to beat their division rivals, which was a good plan, but now they have to focus on studying other teams while they lost to the JETS in the playoffs.
The Ravens were 6-4 outside the division, the Steelers were 7-3 outside the division (bet yall didn't know that) And the Browns were 4-5 outside of the division which was very suprising to me when I found that out. It's insane how the Bengals represented the division in the playoffs with the worst record outside of the division! The Ravens went farther than them, and how the Browns played near the end, I think the Browns could of went further than them, and I know for a fact that the Steelers could of gone farther than that as well!
But is it possible that the AFC North is the new division in football? ESPN just hosted a series on the Raves 2009 season. The network is always talking about T.O. and Ochocinco, and they have a watch on Roethlisberger returning to the game. They pay no attention to the Browns though because the Browns got beat by the Lions and cannot play constantly as a team, and can only win games when the game doesn't affect their playoff hopes, and lose games when the game does affect their playoff hopes.
I dont believe at this time the afc north is the strongest division in the nfl. But we have a new fresh season upon us & anything is possible. Im looking forward to whatever is brought upon us. I would LOVE to see the steelers & cowboys in SB 45 in dallas.
I want a ass whopping by pitts cause i think they may be a better team then when pitts played dallas in the SB in az & lost thanks to neil the costly interception thrower with only 4 mins left & the score was dallas 20, pitts 17.
Pitts was moving the ball on the ground good & should of stayed on the ground. The dallas defense was worn out & i really thought we were gonna pull this out. They held smith to only 48 yrs rushing. That was a dark day for the city of pittsburgh, players & fans. Pitts should of won but neil screwed up. UGH!
Sorry, two of those teams are Cleveland and Cincinnati. Until one of those teams does ANYTHING, EVER, it's not a strong division.
But the Bengals won the division! how have they not done, "Anything???" The browns are the browns, but you had three winning teams in the AFC North last year.
Ravens D. is living on its rep. It is not the D of 5 years ago. Their secondary is a joke. Last year the Steelers almost beat them with a back-up rookie QB.
Steelers have Ben issues, Questions about their D - LB's are getting old, secondary is questionable, Troy P. is showing a disturbing habit of getting hurt - and a specail teams group that hasn't contributed in years.
The Bengals seem to be moving in the right direction, but winning the north in a year the Steelers collapsed and Flacco had a sophmore slump is'nt really a sure sign of a coming dynasty. Taking on TO is a wild card.
The Browns? They are rapidly becoming the Lion of the AFC.
I think teams outside the conference were more scared of a game agianst the AFC north a few years ago when the Steelers were the most punishing D and Offense in the NFL, Ray Lewis and the Ravens roved the feild like a pack of wild wolves and Carson Plamer was just coming on as a serious offensive threat. Now a days, not so much.
Now the AFC east w/ NE and the Jets or the NFC east - they maybe the better divisions right now.
I think a real tough division that does not get enough love is the NFC North, actually. Packers are solid, if Favre comes back, Vikings look good, the Bears are getting hated on in the media, but if the Martz/Cutler experiement works out they can lucksack their way into a good year and the Lions arrow is pointing up (kinda hard to point down with where they have been). I don't know if it is the best division, but I think it could be a very good division.
AFC North will likely be the most competitive and closely matched divisions in the AFC. Overall I'd go with the NFC East as most competitive. Whether or not they are the division to beat remains to be seen.
I think a real tough division that does not get enough love is the NFC North, actually. Packers are solid, if Favre comes back, Vikings look good.
I think favre retired...again.
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