Should Ravens be favorites in AFC North? 'GMFB'

“GMFB” debate should the Baltimore Ravens be favorites in AFC North.

Video Transcript

It’s disconcerting in the last couple seasons to not have a team in the Ravens to have some dominant defense that we’re constantly like giving out game balls to, and you’re like, “Look at this guy coming off the line.”

It just didn’t exist for us.

Their offense- Yeah held, certainly held their own, but the fact that they have a defining, a player defining role in Trey Hendrickson now arriving to Charm City is something to watch next year.

Now, I rattled off at the top of this segment about what’s going on in the AFC North.

A lot of change, a lot of uncertainty, and frankly, some teams are still trying to get their train going in the right direction.

So Mike Garafolo, does that mean to you that the Ravens- Yeah should be considered favorites in this division?

Oh.

I guess.

Now- Here, but here’s what’s weird.

Mr. Mike G. But everything- It’s just funny in the AFC North has been flipped on its head for me.

Yes Because it used to be that you could make the ca- Like, you’d say, “Oh, it’s the toughest division to pick,” ’cause you can make a case for everybody.

Now, it’s almost like it’s the toughest division to pick because you can poke holes in everybody- Right all of a sudden.

I mean, that’s what happens when Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh leave the division.

All of a sudden you don’t know what you have.

I mean, I Listen, Mike McCarthy, I always have thought highly of him as a head coach, and I know he’s gonna win ball games, but you say, “Is there gonna be a fallout from Tomlin, to this new regime?”

We’ll see.

Cincinnati, to me, it remains the most interesting team of the bunch here.

Because that defense, much as they were pitiful at times early last year, did play better late in the year.

And I remember talking to Zach To- Taylor about this at the Combine.

he said, “You know, yeah, that’s, they, they started to play with more confidence.

They started to play faster.”

Al Golden, he’s a guy that he’s known forever.

He’s always been confident in him as a coordinator, and it’s taken some it took some time last year, maybe to switch over from Adaramo, to Golden.

And now all of a sudden they started to play with that confidence late in the season.

And now if you can address some things, whether it’s via the draft or the rest of the off-season, to sort of improve your depth and your roster on that side of the ball, if that defense just becomes middle of the pack I mean, Seth was talking about it early in, in, in the show with the Cowboys.

If you just, like, I don’t need you to be the number one ranked defense in the league.

Right.

Just get somewhere to the middle of the pack and play there consistently.

You know you have enough firepower on offense to make it happen.

So I, I, I’d make a push for the Bengals, but I, I, I need to Check back with me before week one to see how I feel about that defense.

I love it, Mike, and you’re right.

It is a tough division to analyze because it’s kinda like everybody’s semi-even.

I think the Browns are the team that have the biggest question mark right now.

But other than that, it’s kinda even.

But here’s the thing with the Ravens.

I look at it holistically, right?

‘Cause if you look at last year, we talked about their defense.

I think we can all agree the Trey Hendrickson piece, at a minimum, improves their defense drastically, ’cause they’re gonna be affecting the quarterback.

And then you even look at some of the offensive struggles.

This team started one and two, two losses in the first three games, because of fumbles, right?

Derrick Henry with a major fumble at the beginning- Yeah of the season and a major point.

And then the third game, same thing.

So the point is, if you take away those mistakes, you add in a Trey Hendrickson, this is a team that halfway through the year, you’re like, “Man, they’re kinda firing on all cylinders.”

I would not be surprised if we were talking about them totally different come week 10, next year than we were last year.

Mm-hmm.

So and, and again, the, the Mentor piece a- affecting their defense is massive too.

So I, I’m really confident in this Ravens team.

We also don’t know Let’s not forget, we don’t know what the Steelers are gonna look like right now.

We have no clue.

We like to talk about it like Aaron Rodgers is gonna be there, but he could be in a darkest retreat- thinking about retiring.

We don’t know.

So it, there’s a lot of question marks.

This is the piece that I don’t have a lot of question marks on.

I feel confident- Yeah about the Ravens.

Yeah, I mean, the question was are the Ravens the favorite?

And n- no question.

In my mind, of course they’re the favorite.

I mean, i- i- if Lamar Jackson is healthy- Yeah they’re the favorite.

There’s, there’s, they’re, they’re the best team from a talent perspective in this division, and I don’t really even think it’s close.

I, I, I think that, again, if Lamar’s healthy, he can use his legs, he can do everything we need him to do.

obviously last season he was all over the place with his health, but if he looks like Lamar Jackson, the MVP Lamar Jackson, and you add an edge rusher to that already pretty stacked defense, that I think is really gonna help that second and third level, this team is the best team in that division.

I mean, the Browns, they don’t even know what they’re doing at quarterback.

Yeah.

They got Myles Garrett on, but you can’t, you know, he, he, he can’t throw the football.

Maybe he can, I don’t know.

Put him out there.

We’ll see what happens.

you’re looking at Cincinnati, they do The, the Cincinnati offense, sure.

I mean, they’re the Cowboys of the AFC to me.

They’re, they’re gonna get some points.

They’re gonna score some points, but who they gonna stop?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

W- who they gonna stop, and how they gonna stop them?

They just lost their best defensive player.

What are we talking about here?

Mm-hmm.

Cincinnati hasn’t shown me any consistency to, that I’m like, “Oh, that’s the team that’s gonna be the favorite in this division.”

And then Pittsburgh, look, every year it was Mike Tomlin.

We’re like, “Oh, Mike Tomlin will get you to 500- Yeah or maybe a little over- That’s right and he might get you to the playoffs.

Mike Tomlin ain’t there no more.

And again, we love Mike McCarthy, great, but I, you know, we talked about Jesse Minter and what excitement he brings to the building.

I don’t know, fan base wise, if I’m the Pittsburgh Steelers, if I’m excited about next season.

Maybe the following season, but I don’t know about this next season.

I think that has a lot to do with Mike McCarthy’s age, and I think that has a lot to do with Aaron Rodgers.

He’s holding up this team again.

You can’t move into the future.

It felt like, it felt like when Tomlin was gone, we were gonna move into the next generation of what the Steelers were going to be.

Yes.

Yeah.

What’s the next generation?

And now it feels like they’re just in a holding pattern.

Absolutely.

And that is not a place you wanna be as a Steelers fan.

So I think no doubt, Jamie- Yep no doubt- Uh-huh the Ravens are the favorite- to win this division.

It is theirs to lose.

You might have just, like, cr- like, a little creep of, of bias because of who the offensive play caller is in Baltimore now.

Oh, De- And you mentioned his name already once before.

Yeah.

I’m excited to see him.

Declan Doyle.

I’m, I Yeah, I’m excited.

Okay, can we, can we do once around on Declan Doyle, Mike Garafolo?

‘Cause I, I wanna make sure people understand his origin story, and the fact that he wasn’t calling plays last year- Nope in Chicago.

He was under the tutelage- Yeah of Ben Johnson, but he oftentimes ran the meetings in the offensive room for Johnson when he was out doing head coaching duties, if you will.

Well, now he arrives in Baltimore, and we’ve said the main character names already.

Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers.

Like, there’s great potential here offensively that frankly Todd Monken just wasn’t able to tap into perhaps in Baltimore.

What’s the Declan Doyle story- May- yeah in terms Like, what makes him different now for Baltimore?

I, I remember talking to people in Chicago last year.

It was almost treated like he was Ben Johnson Jr.- Oh almost in the building.

And, and, and not in any kind of a negative way.

It’s like he thinks the same way that Ben does, and he is just, a, an incredibly bright, young offensive mind.

Yeah, take a look at him.

Get to know his name.

Mm-hmm.

Lock in.

Say his name.

Hear his name.

Because we’re talking head coaching candidate in the near fu- You know how it works in the NFL, right?

You’re a bright, young, offensive mind, all of a sudden every owner wants to hire you.

So, it’s starting to feel like we’ve get- we’re getting a little bit more of these.

Grant Udinsky down in, in Jacksonville.

Yeah.

e- all these young offensive minds have been hired so quickly that it, it sort of felt like the, the cupboard was bare.

Declan Doyle gonna be one of the guys now that we’re talking about as we, as we restock that cupboard.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and I just want everybody who’s watching to picture this.

If he, if this is a mini Ben Johnson and we’re just gonna imagine a Chicago Bears offense, imagine Chicag- the Chicago Bears with Lamar Jackson at quarterback and Derrick Henry at running back.

Oh.

Like, that exact same offense.

I mean, that’s, that’s dangerous.

That’s fun.

That’s scary.

Should Ravens be favorites in AFC North? ‘GMFB’

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