The AFC North has been the home of two of the toughest teams in the game; the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. Both have notoriously hard hitting defenses and a grudge against each other that makes their games perhaps the most fun to watch. Steelers have won the division twice in the last three seasons and got to the Super Bowl each time. Meanwhile, the Ravens have gotten to the playoffs each of the last three seasons with Joe Flacco under center. Flacco, however, has yet to show good enough form that can win a Super Bowl. Big Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers has. Despite being suspended for the first 4 games of last season, Big Ben still lead the Steelers to a Super Bowl where they lost to the Packers. That and their still strong defense being lead by Troy Polamalu gives this team another shot at a Lombardi trophy.
The bottom two teams from last year still have a lot of work to do to get back to the postseason. The Bengals now have to start from scratch thanks to Carson Palmer retiring because he doesn't want to play for Cincy anymore. Andy Dalton will be the new experiment for the Bengals as they will hope to just win a game this season. The Cleveland Browns, on the other hand, look a bit better. They have Madden cover athlete, Peyton Hillis, to play some smash mouth running as well as developing QB, Colt McCoy, who looks to prove himself in this league.
My pick for the AFC North? It has to be the Steelers. Until Flacco makes that next step, it will be the Steelers winning the division again. The Ravens may have had the same record as the Steelers last season but their defensive stars keep getting older and eventually they will break. I still see a Wild Card spot for them, though.
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