The AFC North is going to look massively different next season. Three teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, all had to find new head coaches, while the Bengals were the only team to retain its own.<\/p>\n
Each of those three hirings has gotten some strong reactions. Many feel confident in Jesse Minter and the Ravens, with the staff he\u2019s putting together<\/a>. Some are a bit more skeptical of Todd Monken\u2019s fit in Cleveland. And with Mike McCarthy in Pittsburgh, reactions have been all over the place. To Yahoo Sports\u2019 Charles McDonald, the latter isn\u2019t much of a hire to be excited about.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just did Mike Tomlin, but worse. I\u2019ve seen Mike Tomlin win, you know, 10, 12 games without good quarterback play. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve seen Mike McCarthy do that. He obviously had Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott as his quarterback; those guys are pretty good,\u201d McDonald said Tuesday on his Football 301 podcast<\/a>. \u201cSo there\u2019s kind of an opportunity for, I think, for Pittsburgh to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n Tomlin\u2019s non-losing season streak started to wear on fans, especially towards the end of his tenure. And McDonald makes a point that many skeptics of McCarthy have raised. That Tomlin managed to get the most out of his teams, even with subpar quarterback play, while McCarthy, despite being a consistent winner as a head coach, has done so with immense quarterback talent. It doesn\u2019t help that the two still have similar recent playoff failures.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s not like McCarthy was carried by Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott throughout his head coaching career. Talents like those certainly help, but McCarthy deserves credit for that level of play as well. And there is a history of him doing well with a lack of talent at quarterback. In 2024, Cooper Rush started eight games in Dallas, throwing for 1,844 yards, 12 touchdowns, and five interceptions, while winning four games. That same Cooper Rush looked terrible the next season in Baltimore.<\/p>\n In the division specifically, Robinson thinks the Steelers could lose some ground to the Bengals.<\/p>\n \u201cThe baseline talent is already there. We\u2019ve seen this team play in the Super Bowl. Even what they have right now, as bad as the defense is, it\u2019s probably good enough to get to the playoffs. I\u2019d expect Pittsburgh to take a step back,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n On paper, it\u2019s easy to believe in the Bengals\u2019 talent. They have Joe Burrow at quarterback, Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins out wide, and Chase Brown in the backfield. An easy group to get behind.<\/p>\n