2013 NFL Recap: AFC North

My Preseason Predictions:
1.Cincinnati Bengals (11-5)
2.Baltimore Ravens (10-6)
3.Pittsburgh Steelers (7-9)
4.Cleveland Browns (6-10)

Actual Standings:
1.Cincinnati Bengals (11-5)
2.Pittsburgh Steelers (8-8)
3.Baltimore Ravens (8-8)
4.Cleveland Browns (4-12)

Baltimore Ravens: The Super Bowl hangover curse continued this season with the Baltimore Ravens failing to reach the playoffs after winning the Super Bowl last year. Despite showing resilience throughout the year and being within reach of the playoffs at the end of the year, the Ravens just couldn't gain enough traction to duplicate the magic of their 2012 playoff run. The team once again flipped their identity as they struggled on offense and thrived on defense. Joe Flacco sincerely made the best of the situation he was handed. He had a severe lack of weapons in the receiving game, his offensive line feel apart at the seams so his protection was terrible and neither Ray Rice or Bernard Pierce could get anything going in the running game. Flacco ended up throwing the most INT's and having the second worst completion percentage of his career, but that can be excused because of his expectations to do so much with such a bad offense. Really the only positive takeaway on offense this year was the emergence of Torrey Smith as a top wideout. Previously, Smith was considered to be exclusively a deep-threat. 2013 proved that Smith can do anything that is asked of him as a receiver and his presence was much-appreciated in a Ravens receiving corps that was otherwise a non-factor with the departure of Anquan Boldin and absence of injured tight end Dennis Pitta for a vast majority of the season  (Rookie Marlon Brown was slightly above average, everyone else was pretty much useless.) On the flip side, the Ravens defense is now an effective unit again and is the main reason the team was on the cusp of making the playoffs. Moving Haloti Ngata back to the interior of the defensive line improved the rushing defense vastly and also helped fourth-year defensive end Arthur Jones have a standout season. Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil mostly lived up to the hype of being chaotic edge rushers, racking up 19.5 sacks between the two. Suggs struggled down the stretch, but is still as valuable as ever to this defense. The secondary recovered from a lackluster 2012 thanks to the healthy return of Ladarius Webb, solid play from first-round pick Matt Elam and career years from veteran safety James Ihedbigo and cornerback Corey Graham. The real difference-maker for the Ravens defense though was new inside linebacker Daryl Smith. Smith made his presence felt in his first year with the Ravens and brought leadership and a dominant presence in both aspects of the game to a defense that desperately needed it after the retirement of Ray Lewis. The Ravens have a lot to fix on offense with the porous receiving corps, offensive line and Ray Rice's sudden inability to run, but with Ozzie Newsome as general manager and a rejuvenated defense, I'd be surprised if the Ravens were sitting at home come next January.

Cincinnati Bengals: Prior to their stumble in the playoffs, 2013 was a very strong year for the Bengals. They managed to overcome season-ending injuries to key players such as Robert Geathers, Leon Hall and Geno Atkins to go 11-5 (8-0 at home) and win the division. Plain and simple, the Bengals just improved in every aspect of the game. Andy Dalton had the best year of his career so far with over 4,000 yards and 33 TD's on the year. Dalton's improvement can be linked to getting more guys involved with the offense and not just relying on A.J. Green to make plays. Marvin Jones had a breakout year and emerged as the clear-cut number 2 wideout behind Green and rookie running back Giovani Bernard finally gives Dalton a trustworthy check-down option out of the backfield who has the elusiveness to break any short pass for a big score. Bernard also had a quality year running the ball and should continue to be a great weapon in the future for the Bengals. Of course, Green was still the top playmaker in the Bengals offense having another All-Pro season. Green continues to grow as a player each year he's in the league and in my opinion, is the best wide receiver in the league not named Calvin Johnson. While Dalton and the rest of the offense improved, the defense continued to be one of the impressive, balanced units in the league. Even when two leaders of the defense in Atkins and Hall went down, the strong play never wavered. The linebackers really led the charge this year with much-improved play from the previous season. Vontaze Burfict led the league in tackles and has already become one of the most feared and complete linebackers in the league in just two seasons, Rey Malaluga was his usual punishing himself on the inside and Vincent Rey became one of the leaders of the defense in the wake of all the injuries. The secondary also impressed heavily with cornerback Adam Jones playing some of the best football of his career and George Iloka unexpectedly becoming an enforcer at safety in his second-year in the league. The pass-rush took a bit of a hit with Atkins out and wasn't nearly as suffocating as they were in 2012 overall, but they were still pretty solid thanks to guys like Wallace Gillberry and Carlos Dunlap. The Bengals are a strong team with all the talent to go on a title run, they just need to stop choking in the playoffs if they want to finally reach the promised land.

Cleveland Browns: The Browns biggest success of 2013 was the fact they were able to unload running back Trent Richardson (who now looks like a complete bust) on the Colts and now have two first-round picks in the 2014 draft. Other than that, it was another painful year to be a Browns fan for the most part. Even with Richardson out of the picture, the Browns still couldn't run the ball to save their lives. Willis McGahee proved that his career is over after his most recent knee injury, Fozzy Whitaker was basically useless as the speed back and Chris Ogbonnaya is a good third-down back with great hands out of the backfield, but doesn't have the skillset or stamina to be an every-down back. The Browns also can't seem to lock down a solid option at quarterback. They have a brief period of hope when Brian Hoyer was calling the shots in late September/early October leading them on a 3-game winning streak, but once he went down for the year with a torn ACL, it was back to the middling play of Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden, who managed just 1 victory between the two of them. The Browns are going to have either roll with Hoyer, make a trade for a veteran or draft someone this year because Weeden or Campbell just aren't going to cut it. Amidst all the headaches this season caused, there is some bright spots for the Browns moving forward. Their secondary has quietly become one of the best in the league.  Cornerback Joe Haden and safety T.J. Ward picked up well-deserved All-Pro spots after having the best years of their respective careers. Ward and Haden have anchored the unit for the past few years, but now guys like Tashuan Gibson and Buster Skrine delivered the goods this season and made this secondary one to truly fear. The front seven has also improved to thanks to the emergence of second-year linebacker Craig Robertson and the continued strong play from wildly underrated linebacker D'Qwell Jackson. If guys like Paul Kruger, Desmond Bryant and Barkevious Mingo can be more consistently productive in 2014, this defense could be a top 5 defensive unit. Of course, you can't mention the 2013 Cleveland Browns without talking about Josh Gordon. Plan and simple: Gordon is a freak. Watching him play this season was just awe-inspiring. He missed the first two games due to suspension and had weak quarterback play for most of the season yet he still led the league in receiving and became the first player in NFL history to get back-to-back 200-yard games, all while being doubled and triple-covered on just about every play. After the year put together in 2013, there is no question that Gordon is one of the most dominant receivers in the league right now. Though he was overshadowed by Gordon, Jordan Cameron has also emerged as a nice option in the Browns receiving game with a near 1,000 yard-season and was finally able to make some noise after being a relative non-factor in his first two NFL seasons. There's still some big holes to fill on this roster at the quarterback and running back position and we'll see what a new head coach brings to the table (I still can't believe they fired Rod Chudinzki after just 1 season), but the Browns certainly have some reasons for optimism moving forward.

Pittsburgh Steelers: The 2013 Pittsburgh Steelers didn't put together a winning season, but they had a strong finish to the year and almost remarkably made it to the playoffs. Once again, Ben Roethlisberger proved just how special of a player he is all season long. The offensive line play was disastrous all season long thanks to a barrage of early-season injuries and the team struggled to run the ball for much for the year, but Roethlisberger still managed to throw for over 4,000 and get complete 64% of his passes. Roethlisberger really doesn't get the credit he deserves. He may not be up to the caliber of Manning, Brady, Rodgers or Brees, but he delivers the goods year-in and year-out no matter what obstacles are thrown against him. Roethlisberger did benefit from a huge bounce-back year from wide receiver Antonio Brown. Brown showed not an even ounce of rust from his lackluster 2012 season and finished 2nd in the league in receiving with just shy of 1,500 yards on the year. Brown's strong play more than made up for the Steelers otherwise above-average receiving corps and proved that they made the right move letting Mike Wallace go. Rookie running back Le'veon Bell struggled a bit out of the gate, but found his footing late in the year and showed a lot of potential as a dual-threat back. On the other side of the ball, the Steelers were a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, a lot of their older players can still perform. Troy Polamalu stayed healthy all season and was in vintage form the entire season, Ryan Clark still has something left in the tank with 104 tackles at age 34 and inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons can still captain the defense with his coverage and tackling as strong as ever. The downside is, they are just too damn old on the whole. Ike Taylor is already DOA as he got gassed all season long and the rest of these guys aren't far behind. To prevent a full-scale collapse a la the Bears, they are going to need inject some fresh legs on this defense (Rookie Jarvis Jones is a start, but he wasn't all that effective in his 1st year in the league.)  The Steelers have a great coach in Mike Tomlin and enough stable pieces to have a winning team. They just need a healthy and effective offensive line and some young playmakers on defense to make a playoff push in 2014.