Grades for EVERY AFC North team one month in: Steelers, Ravens, Browns, and Bengals

Grades for EVERY AFC North team one month in: Steelers, Ravens, Browns, and Bengals

Back here on Spotlight, the NFL’s first game in Ireland was a good one for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I also know that Steelers nation travels very well, and it was no different in Dublin. It was black and yellow everywhere. That defense built upon that strong showing in week three against the Patriots, sacking Carson Went six times. On offense, the run game was clicking. Aaron Rogers looks more and more comfortable as time goes on, and I hope that he got his Guinness on tap that he shared with us about that is allegedly his favorite beer in the world. Now, the AFC North is not really turning out how we suspected it in the offseason. The Steelers sitting at 3-1 right at the top. The Burrowless Bengals at 2 and one for now. We’ll see what happens over the next 3 months or so. And then we have the Browns and the Ravens off to a one and three start to the season. We know getting to a Super Bowl, which is the goal for Baltimore, gets kind of bleak as you’re getting into those sort of records here. Only one team has made the Super Bowl was with a one and three start to the season. Let’s welcome in our NFL analysts, Ryan Wilson, John Breach. Great to have you guys back here. We’re going to give out some grades for the AFC North. Starting with the Steelers. Three and one sitting at top of the division. The defense is getting right. The Rogers, DK Metaf connection looking better and better. Ryan, I’ll come to you first. As a member of Steelers Nation, what is the grade that you were giving out? They’re an A minus. And I think that uh I think Breach would have to agree with that as a Bengals fan given how much they have exceeded expectations. Now, the cautionary tale is we’ve sort of seen this movie before where they get off the red hot starts uh a lot of times with smoke and mirrors and then it all comes crashing down uh once we have Thanksgiving and move beyond towards Christmas. So, fingers crossed it continues, but you know, hope ain’t a plan. But Aaron Rogers has been fun and you talked about it, Jacqueline. Uh the run game finally showed up. The offensive line finally was able to block some people uh consistently because they struggled against that in the first three weeks of the season and they generated turnovers against backup Carson Wentz. But unlike the Patriots game where the Patriots are just literally handing the ball over and asking the Steelers to take it, uh there’s a little work involved. So I I think you have to feel better about both sides of the football if you’re Steelers nation. And uh the only thing I I’m missing in addition to that Guinness with Aaron Rogers is our buddy Bmack having some with him in a version perhaps, but I give him an A minus over the first month of the season. It’s been uh if anything else surprising how well they played. I did not copy Ryan somewhere, but I’m also giving them an A minus. Then a fun fact about Giddis, guys, did you guys know it’s not black? It’s actually a dark hue of red. Uh yeah, I learned that once. Yeah, go ahead and use Google after this. But when you look up the Steelers have done, Ryan, you mentioned, hey, look, maybe they’ll collapse later in the season. It might not matter in this division. Seven and 10 might win the AFC North the way things are going if the Steelers do collapse. I think they are the best team through four weeks. And I do think they’re probably going to be the last team standing in week 18. And when I look at what they’ve done through the first four weeks, if Caleb uh Johnson didn’t forget the rules of football against the Seahawks, this team might be 4-0. The defense struggled a little bit through the first two weeks, but as you said, they’ve rebounded. They’ve had a total of 11 sacks in their past two games. Aaron Rogers is getting more and more comfortable every week. And to me, the Steelers look like the favorite in the division. So that’s why I gave them an A minus. uh can confirm breach. It is a dark ruby red color according to the internet. So, you know, we just had to fact check it here. All right, let’s talk about the Ravens because uh it just did not look good against the Chiefs. They lose by double digits. Something ain’t right and the injuries are just piling up. Of course, we know about Lamar leaving in the third quarter and that loss of the hamstring injury. And then the newest addition here to the injury report, Rocoan Smith diagnosed with a grade two hamstring strain. He’s going to miss a few weeks. Um, breach a disappointing start to the season. Gets a disappointing grade as well. Yeah, I was going to give him a D, but that doesn’t feel right because they don’t have any D in Baltimore right now. They’re not playing any. Everybody’s putting points up on the board. It’s a crazy to think that back in week one, this team was leading the Buffalo Bills by 15 points uh with under five minutes left in the game. And now here we are sitting here talking about a 1 and3 Ravens team that has a season that’s spiraling out of control. They had no chance against the Chiefs on Sunday. They were never really in that game and now they’re just being season is being totally derailed by injuries. We saw Lamar Jackson go out with a hamstring injury. You just mentioned Roquan Smith. Marlon Humphrey left that game. Their starting tackle Ronnie Stanley left the game with an injury. You can take a few injuries in the NFL. Teams have a lot of depth, but the Ravens are just being crushed. So, I have a hard time seeing them rebound from this early quarter of the season where they’ve already struggled. So, I’ve got a D and I’m not sure they’re going to do much better uh going forward. Yeah, I’m only slightly more optimistic in terms of the grading, but I agree with everything you said, John. D plus. And you know, it would be easier to name the players that are healthy on the Ravens and to go through the list of guys who aren’t healthy. That’s how bad it is. So part of this is just being unlucky, but as Breach noted, they were up double digits late against the Bills team that might be the best team in football. And from then it has snowalled straight downhill off of cliff and into a fiery furnace. It feels like because there has very few things, if anything, has gone right. Maybe the kicker Tyler Loop has been the the high point. And I’m surprised Bree didn’t mention that as our special teams correspondent, but that’s how bad things have been in Baltimore. And there’s a real chance when they go into their buy in two weeks, they could be one and five. Now, the season isn’t over in that they can’t get to 500 or better, but their playoffs could be, you see it there. They have the Texans and the Rams and their buy. And if you’re sitting at one and five, you have a a lot a lot more questions than answers. So, D+, I don’t know where you go from here unless you can get everyone healthy with some sort of Mr. Miyagi magic. Otherwise, this season, while not lost, you can see lost down the street and you’re trying to avoid getting there. All right, so the Ravens are sitting at 1 and three. So are the Browns. Um and somehow they pulled off some win against the Packers last week. That was kind of shocking. Ryan, you’re you’re being a little bit um of a more harsh grader here with the Browns. So like I believe Yeah, I have to double check. You’re the the harder grader. So uh tell us your grade. What is it for the Cleveland Browns as they’re sitting here one and three on the season? This is Breach’s uh Ohio bias shining through. I give him a C minus, but I feel much better about the Browns than I do about the Ravens, even though they have the same schedule. The Browns defense is the best defense in the NFL. They have drafted extremely well, but they’re also one and three. The only issue that’s staring them in the face, and we see it each and every week, couple issues. The primary one is the quarterback situation, and they have to resolve that. If they had a replacement level quarterback, they could be leading this division. The run game is really good because of the players they’ve drafted. They do have some needs at wide receiver outside of Jerry Judy, and he struggled a little bit. Uh, but there’s a lot of reasons for optimism outside of the quarterback position. I know their fans are frustrated, but we forget that Kevin Speesky’s won coach of the year twice. They won 11 games two years ago. I I just think they have bungled the QB situation that lands them at one and three. And if they had figured that out, even halfway figured it out, and they were, you know, perhaps two and two or even three and one, the grade would have been higher than C minus. Ryan, I actually agree with you. I also gave the Cleveland Browns a C minus. I think when you look at Cleveland, a lot of people expected this team to be 0 and4 at the quarter point because of their early season schedule. They had to face the Bengals with Joe Burrow in week one. They had to face the Baltimore Ravens in week two and then the Packers and Lions. And when you look at that four game slate, that’s brutal. Uh but not only did the Browns win a game, they came out of it and they have the number one defense in the NFL. They’ve given up the fewest yards. So, that tells you how good this defense is. And you hit the nail on the head, Ryan. If the Browns had replacement level quarterback play, they could compete in the AFC North. Maybe it’s time to start a rookie. Maybe it’s time to trade for Kirk Cousins. But the Browns need to figure something out because they really have a playoff caliber defense. They just need an offense and a special teams uh that can match up talent levelwise. Bridge, I’m hearing that your grade was changed last minute. Um, I believe it was B minus, but we lowered the grade. Is that factual, my friend? I think I was C minus all along. I I Okay, we’ll let we’ll let you we’ll we’ll let you have it. C minus all across the board for the Browns. All right, Bree, we are saving your Bengals for last. The Bengals, they are sitting at two and one, although we know no Joe Burrow for now. They are in action against the Broncos. You are giving them a B minus. Correct. B minus. Um, and how flexible is that B range depending on what happens tonight? Well, I was going to give him an A+, but I didn’t want you guys to laugh at me, so I downed it to a B minus. I think it’s important to remember, you look at the Joe Burrow injury, and a lot of people talk about the Bengals like they’re 0 and3. There just seems to be that they’ve fallen off the national radar, but no matter what happens on Monday night, if they lose to the Broncos, they’re still second place. in the AFC North. If they win, they’re tied for first place after four weeks. And that’s a great place to be considering your starting quarterback is going to be out for the next three months. And when you look at their first two wins over the Browns and over Jacksonville, those are a lot more impressive now cuz we know how good Cleveland’s defense is. The Jags are three and one. So, I like what the Bengals have done. I’m not sure they’re going to be able to keep it going, but judging just based on the three games, I have it a B minus. And Jacqueline, if they do beat the Broncos, I would move it up to an A minus. Uh, they’re not beating the Broncos. I give him a B minus as well. We’re not one to live in the past, but I will live in the past for this grade for the for the Bengals because moving forward, as we just saw in that schedule, it ain’t going to be easy, especially when Jake Brown is trying to set the interception record in one week. Uh, he struggled mightily against uh the Vikings. And you can see this here at Broncos, Lions, Packers, Steelers, Jets, Bears. If they win two of those games, breach, I’ll be exceedingly excited for you as a Bengals fan. But the reality is without Joe Burrow and with the defense still struggling, uh I don’t think the B minus is going to hold up over the middle part of this schedule. So B minus for the way they started, congratulations. Uh Jake Browning has to play a ton better for them to be in in the consideration uh to sniff a playoff spot in a wideopen AFC North. Breach. Um we have to admit and we are wrong. That was an error on our end. You did have a C minus for the Browns. Um, I will we will fess up. Um, breach Ryan, we appreciate it. Checking in on the AFC North and getting some grades where the Steelers, the only ones that are in the A, I think technically a minus, you know, whatever the petty A as we like to call it. Despite the Ravens being one and three to start the season, Vegas still likes them to come out and win the division. A minus 210 favorite. I kind of like the odds on the Steelers at plus 290. Some good value there. But there you have it folks, the odds to win the AFC North.

John Breech and Ryan Wilson join CBS Sports HQ Spotlight to discuss the state of the division for the AFC North.

(0:00:00) AFC North Standings
(0:01:04) Pittsburgh Steelers Grade
(0:03:26) Baltimore Ravens Grade
(0:06:14) Cleveland Browns Grade
(0:08:42) Cincinatti Bengals Grade
(0:10:47) Odds to win AFC North

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