2015 NFL Preview: AFC North

Baltimore Ravens

2014 Record: 10-6

Head Coach: John Harbaugh (8th year)

Notable Additions: S Kendrick Lewis, CB Kyle Arrington, QB Matt Schaub

Notable Departures: DT/DE Haloti Ngata, WR Torrey Smith, OLB Pernell McPhee 

Offense:

The Ravens enjoyed their most successful offensive season in ages behind offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak last season. They finished in the top half of the league in points per game (8th), passing (13th), rushing (8th) and total yards (12th) and a number of players including quarterback Joe Flacco and Justin Forsett enjoyed career years in Kubiak's dynamic system. W

With Kubiak departing to become the new head coach of the Denver Broncos, the Ravens will be looking to recreate that success with new coordinator Marc Trestman. While Trestman's stint as the head coach of the Chicago Bears was nothing short of a disaster, he's enjoyed quite a bit of success as an offensive coordinator in the past. He's been the architect behind 2 league-best offenses (the 1995 49ers and 2002 Raiders) and has helped quarterbacks like Jake Plummer, Rich Gannon and Scott Mitchell achieve career-high numbers over his nearly 20 years as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in the NFL. Trestman will keep a lot of Kubiak's system-including the zone-blocking scheme that helped Forsett have a breakout season- in tact so as long as he improves upon the sketchy play-calling that doomed him last season in Chicago, this offense should be fine. 

As for the on-field personnel, this is pretty much the same the group of guys from a year ago. Both notable losses (wide receiver Torrey Smith and tight end Owen Daniels) were solid contributors, but neither of them are irreplaceable. The success of this offense is going to largely hinge on the performance of Forsett and rookie wide receiver Breshad Perriman. Forsett is coming off of a huge season in which he ran in for 1,266 yards (5th best in the league) and, but since he's only been a starting running back for 1 seasons, there's huge questions as to whether or not he's a legitimate top back or simply a 1-year wonder. Thankfully for Forsett, the elite offensive line that helped make his career year possible is returning all 5 starters from a year ago, which gives him pretty solid odds of repeating that success in 2015. Perriman, on the other hand, is a much shakier bet for success. Perriman has a huge ceiling due to the lack of competition at receiver (outside of the seemingly ageless Steve Smith Sr.) and he has the elite speed and big-play ability needed to take over the recently-departed Smith's deep threat role in this offense, but his problems with drops and inconsistent route-running make him the epitome of a boom-or-bust pick. While the Ravens certainly have question marks on their offense, the consistently solid play of Flacco and large amount of quality veteran starters gives them good odds of being productive this season.    

Defense:

The Ravens widely-feared front seven took a hit this offseason after outside linebacker Pernell McPhee went to the Bears in free agency and longtime defensive tackle/end Haloti Ngata was traded to the Lions after refusing to take a pay cut. McPhee was one of the catalysts behind the Ravens top-5 rush defense a year ago and was 2nd in the league behind only J.J Watt in quarterback hits while Ngata return to his dominant form after a shaky 2013. The Ravens have excellent depth across their defensive front and a pair of promising young players in Timmy Jernigan and Courtney Upshaw that are more than ready to step into the open starting roles, but no matter how strong you are at a given position, losing huge contributors in McPhee and Ngata stings. Even without McPhee and Ngata, this is still one of the most talented front seven's in the league. Terrell Suggs is still playing at an extremely high level in his early 30's, Elvis Dumervil is probably the best situational pass-rusher in the league, Inside linebacker C.J Mosley put together a phenomenal rookie campaign that has already cemented him as one of the best inside linebackers in the league and inside linebacker Daryl Smith and defensive tackle Brandon Williams are two of the most underrated players in the league are at their respective positions. They might not have the firepower and flash of the Bills and Seahawks fronts, but they certainly aren't far behind in talent. 

In typical Ravens fashion, Ozzie Newsome used the limited cap space they had available to improve a secondary that was 23rd in the league a year ago and who's deficiencies  played a huge role in their tragic AFC Divisional Round loss to the Patriots. Ex-Texans safety Kendrick Lewis gives them a quality starter with solid coverage skills to put alongside Will Hill and newest acquisition, ex-Patriot corner Kyle Arrington, gives them the competent slot corner they sorely lacked a year ago. While Lewis and Arrington should be instant starts who contribute right away, the most important asset to the Ravens this secondary in 2015 is Jimmy Smith, who was knocked out for the year after suffering a foot injury against the Bengals in Week 8. Smith was having an All-Pro/Pro Bowl caliber year (number 9 in completion percentage against, number 2 in yards per catch allowed) before his injury and the secondary suffered immensely the second he went down. The Ravens showed their belief in him by giving him a pretty hefty contract this offseason (4 years/$48 mil/$21 mil guaranteed) and as long as his foot injury doesn't further hamper him, Smith's presence alone should help bring this secondary back to life after an awful 2015.    

Bottom Line:

The Ravens are a gifted team with a lot of veteran continuity and promising young players. It would be a surprise if they weren't one of the best teams in the AFC this season.

Cincinnati Bengals

2014 Record: 10-5-1 

Head Coach: Marvin Lewis (13th year) 

Notable Additions: OLB A.J. Hawk, DE Michael Johnson, WR Denarius Moore

Notable Departures: TE Jermaine Gresham, CB Terrence Newman, T Marshall Newhouse

Offense:

Other than the return of redzone demon Marvin Jones-who missed all of 2014 with a foot injury- and the addition of respectable-but-oft-injured wideout Denarius Moore, this offense is practically a mirror image of the one they had a year ago. Hue Jackson's efficient offense will lean heavily on the two-headed rushing attack of  Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill, who led the league in rushing in the second half of the 2014 season to movie the chains and giving Andy Dalton a handful of opportunities on each drive to let his often ill-advised intermediate-to-deep passes rip. If the Bengals want to break their cycle of having good-but-not great offenses, Dalton is going to have to step his game up. Dalton is coming off a season with a career-low TD (19) and passing yards (3,398) total, which is a huge step back from the 4,293 yd/33 TD season he had in 2013. His gunslinger mentality keeps his INT total high (he hasn't thrown under 15 INT's in a season since his rookie year in 2011), but with Jones returning to the fold and a fully healthy A.J. Green at his disposal, he should be able to bounce back to numbers that rival his productive 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Defense:

2014 was a disastrous season for the Bengals defense. They finished dead last in the league in sacks, couldn't stop the run or pass with any regularity, 2 time All-Pro defensive tackle Geno Atkins grossly underperformed and outside linebacker Vontaze Burfict missed all but 5 games with an assortment of injuries. Unfortunately for the Bengals, there's no sign of things getting any better this year. Their lack of cap space prevented them from bringing in any big-ticket free agents (their biggest pickup was defensive end Michael Johnson, who has picked up a whopping 7.5 sacks over the past 2 seasons) and they made the mind-boggling decision to not draft a defensive player until the tail-end of the 3rd round (and that player, inside linebacker Paul Dawson, was not at a position of need). 

After a non-existent free agency period and subpar draft, the Bengals are left with a weak secondary (with the notable exception of rapidly-risingly safety George Iloka) containing players that are either too old to be effective (Leon Hall, Adam Jones) or haven't proven they can compete in the NFL (Darqueze Dennard, rookies Josh Shaw and Derron Smith) and a pass-rush that is non-existent outside of Carlos Dunlap. Making this less than desirable situation even worse is the recent revelation that Burfict underwent microfracture surgery last December, which is a kiss-of-death for a player like Burfict that relies on his explosiveness. Unless they get multiple breakout seasons from their bevy of young players, I don't expect this defense to be anything above average this season.

Bottom Line:
No major additions or losses all but assures that the Bengals will repeat that their fate of being a solid regular season team who sputters out once the playoffs roll around.

Cleveland Browns

2014 Record: 7-9

Head Coach: Mike Pettine (2nd year)

Notable Additions: QB Josh McCown, WR Dwayne Bowe, WR Brian Hartline

Notable Departures: TE Jordan Cameron, CB Buster Skrine, QB Brian Hoyer

Offense:

The 2015 offseason dealt blow after blow to the Browns already subpar offense. Star wideout Josh Gordon got suspended for the entire 2015 season after testing positive for marijuana for the umpteenth time, quarterback Johnny Manziel spent his offseason going to rehab and throwing water bottles at bystanders asking for autographs during a charity golf tournament and tight end Jordan Cameron ended up backing out of his deal to return to the Browns to join the Miami Dolphins. Because they're the Browns, they counteracted this turmoil by making a series of unspectacular moves that probably won't significantly help or hurt their team. 

Josh McCown replaces Brian Hoyer as the stopgap quarterback to start while Johnny Trainwreck tries to get his act together on and off-the-field. McCown is bound to improve on the ghastly 2014 season he had with the Buccaneers since the Browns have an offensive live that will allow him time to actually go through his progressions, but I'd be pretty shocked if he was able to do anything remotely special with this team. McCown's spectacular 2013 campaign with the Bears seems to be an anomaly in an otherwise mediocre career and I doubt Cleveland will be the place where he proves this theory wrong. To make up for the Gordon suspension, the Browns went out and signed veteran wideouts Dwayne Bowe and Brian Hartline. You could do much worse on the open market than these two, but the play of both Bowe and Hartline have steadily declined over the last few seasons and their odds of having a resurgence in the Dogpound appear to be very slim.

The incumbent players generate just about as much excitement as the newcomers. Second-year running back duo Terrence West and Isiah Crowell showed flashes of potential, but were both really subpar on the whole and Andrew Hawkins is the only returning receiver the Browns have that is even above average. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this unit struggled even more than they did a year ago, when they ranked 23rd in total offense.

Defense:

For the past several years, the Browns defense has kept them afloat amidst losing campaigns and that looks like that's going once again going to be the case in 2015. Even with the loss of number 2 corner Buster Skrine, the secondary should be as strong as ever with shutdown corner Joe Haden, emerging slot corner K'Wuan Williams and the highly underrated safety tandem of Donte Whitner and Tashaun Gibson returning. If second-year cornerback Justin Gilbert can right the ship after his atrocious 2015 campaign, the Browns could have the makings of a top 5 pass defense. 

Their strong draft class this year has the potential to make this defense one of the truly elite units in the league. They picked up a disruptive nose tackle in Danny Shelton, who could play a pivotal role in turning around a rush defense that ranked dead last in the league in 2014, a strong, instinctive pass-rusher in Nate Orchard and one of the draft's best pure run-stuffing defensive ends in Xavier Cooper. While there's still some deficiencies at inside linebacker, this draft class could very well patch up the problems that held back this defense last season. If the Browns want a shot at reversing their fortunes in 2015, their defense is going to need to be better than ever.

Bottom Line: 

Their half-decent 2014 campaign seems like a complete fluke. This is a generally incompetent team that lacks talents at most of the skill positions and that lack of talent should keep behind the pack in this very competitive division 

Pittsburgh Steelers

2014 Record: 11-5

Head Coach: Mike Tomlin (9th year) 

Notable Addition: RB DeAngelo Williams

Notable Departures: S Troy Polamalu (retired), OLB Jason Worldiis (retired), CB Ike Taylor (retired)
Offense:

The Pittsburgh Steelers offense exploded in 2014, ranking behind only the New Orleans Saints in total offense. In 2015, they could be even better. Ben Roethlisberger is firmly in his prime and the weapons around him are absolutely unreal. Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell are about as scary as a wide receiver/running back combo as there is in the league right now and at the tender ages of 27 and 23 respectively, it's very possible that we haven't even seen the best they have to offer yet. Brown and Bell may be two of the brightest young stars in the league but the guy that could push this offense over the edge is second-year wideout Martavis Bryant. Bryant played very well in the second half of last season and has reportedly been very impressive throughout OTA's and mini-camp. Bryant's size, deep-ball ability and nose for the endzone makes him an ideal candidate to breakout in this stellar offense. 

The only real issue for this offense is their lack of depth at running back. When Bell missed the wild card playoff game last year against the Ravens, the Steelers offense suffered. None of their backups could getting anything going, which forced them to become very one-dimensional in their play-calling and ultimately led to them losing the game. They did go out and sign a versatile veteran back in DeAngelo Williams in free agency, but he's been extremely inconsistent and injury-prone over the past few years while the incumbent backs Dri Archer and Josh Harris did next to nothing as rookies last year. Bell is suspended for the first 2 games of the year, so we'll get to see early on if any of these guys can step up and be a reliable option if Bell goes down.

Defense:

The changing of the guard that has been slowly occurring in Pittsburgh over the past few seasons was fast tracked this offseason. For the first time since 2001, the Steelers will not have safety Troy Polamalu, defensive end Brett Kiesel or cornerback Ike Taylor taking the field on opening day. Now that Polamalu, Kiesel and Taylor have all retired, inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons, cornerback William Gay and the somehow still-active James Harrison are the only remaining members of the defense that helped secure their Super Bowl wins in 2005 and 2008. Around these grizzled veterans, is an army of young players and-aside from defensive end Cameron Heyward- unproven bunch of guys. Inside linebacker Ryan Shazier, safety Shamarko Thomas, defensive end Stephon Tuitt and rookie outside linebacker Alvin "Bud" Dupree all have been in the league for 3 years or less and are all expected to be in the starting lineup this season. Despite all the potential these guys possess, Tuitt is the only one of the bunch who received extensive playing time a year ago, which is a bit of a red flag for a squad that has grown accustomed to continuity on defense.How well this new, young defensive nucleus play is going to ultimately hold the key of just how good this Steelers squad will be in 2015.  

Throwing a further wrench in the Steelers defense is the departure of  defensive coordinator Dick LaBeau after 11 seasons on the job. LaBeau was a fantastic coordinator who would get the most out of his guys, regardless of their ability, week in and week out. Linebackers coach Keith Butler, who coached under LaBeau for his entire tenure in Pittsburgh, was promoted to defensive coordinator. While I'm sure Butler is a great football mind who runs a similar system as LaBeau, filling the shoes of a brilliant coach like LaBeau is a tall order and it may be too much for him to surmount in his first year as an NFL defensive coordinator.

Bottom Line:

Their offense is as good as any football, but their largely unproven defense makes them too shaky to be a serious title contender.

Projected Standings
1.Baltimore Ravens (10-6)
2.Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7)
3.Cincinnati Bengals (9-7)
4.Cleveland Browns (5-11)