The Pittsburgh Steelers are the reigning AFC North champs, having taken down the Baltimore Ravens in Week 18 of the 2025 season to punch their ticket to the postseason.

Since then, the Steelers have done nothing but improve, based on the general consensus of their offseason so far. Meanwhile, the Ravens hemorrhaged talent in free agency and had the Maxx Crosby trade fall through in an ugly situation.

Yet, for NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo, the Ravens should be viewed as the favorites in the AFC North entering the 2026 season. Not that he gave them a ringing endorsement.

“I guess,” Garofolo said Friday on Good Morning Football when asked if Baltimore is the favorite. “But here’s what’s weird: everything in the AFC North has been flipped on its head for me. Because it used to be that you could…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? That’s what happens when Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh leave the division. All of a sudden you don’t know what you have.”

The division underwent significant change early in the offseason with the Ravens firing Harbaugh in Baltimore and Tomlin resigning after the Steelers’ Wild Card loss to Houston, ending 18- and 19-year runs, respectively.

Now, the Ravens are counting on Jesse Minter to right the ship, while 62-year-old Mike McCarthy was called home to shepherd the Steelers into a the post-Tomlin era.

The Steelers have made a lot of moves so far this offseason and, by most accounts, have improved. The Ravens did add a big piece in pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, but they also lost a ton of talent across the board in free agency, so there are questions about Baltimore moving forward.

Questions remain about the Steelers, too. The biggest one is at quarterback and whether Aaron Rodgers returns for a second season at 42 years old to reunite with McCarthy, or if he retires and the Steelers roll with Will Howard and Mason Rudolph.

McCarthy has respect around the league and has won everywhere he’s gone, but in Pittsburgh is another question.

“Listen, Mike McCarthy, I always have thought highly of him as a head coach, and I know he is gonna win ball games. But you say, is there gonna be a falloff from Tomlin to this new regime? We’ll see,” Garafolo said.

Garafolo, at least right now in late March, is more intrigued with the Bengals than the other three teams in the division, but not because of Joe Burrow and the high-powered offense under head coach Zac Taylor.

“Cincinnati to me, remains the most interesting team of the division here because that defense, much as they were pitiful at times early last year, did play better late in the year,” Garafolo added. “I’d make a push for the Bengals, but I need to check back with me before Week 1 to see how I feel about that defense.”

Chances are, the Steelers or the Ravens will reign supreme in the division once again.

The Bengals have made improvements this offseason, but that defense still has a long way to go, and they still need to protect Burrow better. They haven’t proven they can do that consistently.