Looking Forward to the 2019 AFC North

^^^^^
Just wait until the Browns draft Dre'Mont Jones (DLI, 1-15), Hakeem Butler (WR, 2-47) and sign Dee Ford (EDGE, KAN) and Clay Matthews (LB, GBP) in free agency.

 

That seems like a logical order to discuss the various positions or positional groups.

 

Not related to the 2019 AFCN, but has anyone noticed that Josh Gordon is taking some time away from the Patriots?

 

In related news, he has also violated his terms of reinstatement. It did not say he is in violation of the drug policy, but in violation of his reinstatement.

 

He'll probably never play again.

Hope Josh Gordon the person gets the help he needs and stepping away from the sport (whether voluntarily or not) should very quickly help that process.

 

You know, every time one of these "upcoming year projections" are done by AFC North fans, the Ravens are always predicted to be around 6-10. No complaints about it, it's just always interesting to consistently see. Y'all were about right one year so..........anyway, I had to respond to this:

Without knowing who's on what roster next season, and thereby going off this season, there is no way Baltimore doesn't have the best CB situation without question. This may be a homer view, but I don't even see how it's close. There is no 4 man squad in the division, or the league, that compares to Jimmy Smith, Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Carr, and Tavon Young in the slot. Our safeties are trash this year, our pass rush is trash without blitzing, and yet the secondary has still been top 5 all year. They lack badly in INTs, but that's pretty much the only area any AFC north CB corp touches them. Baltimore needs to be moved to the front of this category.

I actually want to argue the DLI portion also as I feel that the focus in the QB pressure portion as opposed to something like stopping the run also (something both Ohio teams are horrible at), but I'll leave that alone for now. OT is another area I may come back to.

I will, however, argue TE. I feel Njoku is being badly overrated by fans. Vance McDonald, Jesse James, and Mark Andrews all have a higher catch percentage AND a higher yards per reception average than him. McDonald and James split time while Andrews is the focal point of a Baltimore TE committee that uses 3 other TEs, yet all are within 100 yards and 1 TD of Njoku, minus McDonald who has him beat in both categories while splitting time. The fact that these TEs split time and are outperforming a guy who's the focal point of his position says it all.

This rating needs to go Pit, Bal, Cle, Cin

 

Every oline position belongs to the Steelers. The Steelers have 3 pro bowl oline men and the other two are good enough to be in the pro bowl too. So the Steelers own every position with no competition at any T, G or C
As long as Munchack is our oline coach it will stay that way.

 

Guys,

In order to keep some degree of order and meaningful discussion, I propose we stick to the talking points in the order outlined by @SAS .

Right now we're on the subject of QB and RB. Next up is WR.

Don't worry @ravens_R_#1 , eventually we'll get around to a Ravens' strong point.

 

Let me see the All Pro, not the Pro Bowl... Damarious Randall was snuffed for the Pro Bowl and he was one of the best in the NFL, not just the AFC, or AFC North. He should have been a Pro Bowl starter, he wasn't even given an alternate status.

The Browns also have Two Pro Bowl alternates in Bitonio and Zeitler, but the player who had the best year on the line, despite having an ankle injury was C JC Tretter and he also didn't even get an alternate tag.

The Pro Bowl is a joke...

 

Pouncey and Decastro are all-pros every season. Vilanova is on the verge of being named all-pro.

 

Oh, I thought those were just his rankings kn the positions. Didn't know it was the discussion order. In that case:

QB - Pit, Cle, Bal, Cin
If Jackson progresses next offseason like some expect, this will change.

RB - Cin, Cle, Pit, Bal
I'm not sold on Conner and I'm not convinced that the Ravens RBs could do it without the Lamar running threat

 

Good stuff. I'm going to start by saying this could be a lot of fun if we can keep it civil (unlike the AFC North threads). I'll commit to that right now. Hopefully everyone can do tha to the same. That being said I'm going to start right here...

Okay let's pump the brakes a little here. I like Baker, I really do but this is a bit much. Perennial odds on favorite for MVP? That's really over the top. I can think of four guys off the top of my head (Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Brees) that we could say that about over the last 8-10 seasons and they are all 1st ballot hall of famers. And ironically one of those has never won the award so even calling him a "perennial favorite" has to be considered pretty damn generous.

It's awesome you have a guy that you can consider a legitimate franchise QB but at this point I think that's as far as you can go. Only time will tell. ®Gmiller

It's actually not rare at all. In fact, I would say it's almost a given that once teams get some film on rookie QBs and can begin to truly game plan for them a bit of regression can be expected. I expect there will be quite a few teams pouring over the Denver film to see what they did to Baker to create the kind of inaccuracy teams hadn't seen from him in prior games. That was a really bad first half of football for Baker - and I'm not talking about stats. I watched the game Sunday. After the Perriman dime he really struggled putting the ball on his receivers.

I'm pretty anxious to see Baker against the Ravens secondary. My first thought is the Ravens are going to give Mayfield some trouble. It will be a nice litmus test.

 

I'm probably one of the bigger Ben critics out there but I still have to put him #1 at this point. And barring a really bad concussion or other injury over the next few weeks I don't think there's any chance at all he's retiring. That was just more Ben drama. His last comments on the subject were that he was playing another 5 years.

1. Ben Roethlisberger
2. Baker Mayfield
3. Lamar Jackson - Flacco is going to be traded
4. Whoever the Bengals QB is - I think Dalton could be gone.

 

I agree, I am really looking forward to this as well. They are one of the best CB squads he has faced all year.

As for the Broncos, I didn't see much from their secondary that caused him trouble. He was floating a lot of balls and that hasn't happened all year. Is it possible the air had anything to do with it? I am not making excuses, I am asking a legit question. Everyone talks about kickers advantage because of the thin air, does it effect passing? I've never done a study on opposing QB play in Mile High.

 

Agree with this. The Steelers run game is about the o-line (and o-line coach). Mixon and Chubb are the cream of the crop in the AFC North. Not sure what order I would put those two in. Conner is a talented kid. But I think the other two are better.

 

Could it be that the Denver edge rush got into his head?

 

Did they ever really get a lot of pressure on him? I can only remember about 3 plays that were heavy pressure.

 

They don't necessarily have to get to him. Their pass rush threat has gotten into the heads of a lot of QB's. Especially young QB's.

 

I believe the Steelers have a little more than that available but they could have 100M and they aren't going free agent shopping. It's not in their DNA.

As to impending free agents to sign, they don't have a whole lot in that category. Ramon Foster and Jesse James are the only real contributors that are unrestricted. Foster will be an easy re-sign in spite of his recent comments about getting paid. He'll be 33 years old next year and is the least mobile guy on their line. The team most willing to offer him a multi-year contract will be the Steelers and even they might be willing to move on because they are very deep. I'd like to see them keep Jesse and he's not getting much money from anyone either. The only RFA they need to make an offer to is B.J. Finney which could spell the end of Foster. And they have some cap-saving maneuvers likely in their future:

Release Marcus Gilbert - +4.9M (probable)
Release Morgan Burnett - +3.6M (probable)
Extend Joe Haden - +3-4M
Extend Ben - + 4-5M
Extend Bud Dupree - +2-3M

The Steelers have a lot of flexibility this off-season. If they see a guy they really want (ex. Donta Hightower 2017) they can make a run at him if they like. Otherwise I think they'll go after their kind of guys like Burnett and Bostic. They might also try to extend Sean Davis and Javon Hargrave which will require some additional space.

 

It could be part of the equation, but he was getting the ball off, they were just off target, which was rare all season for Baker. I'm curious if the elements played a part in it..