Baltimore Ravens
Love: They'll Be Way Better Than Last Year
If the Ravens were on the stock market, now would be the time to buy very, very low while the stench of their previous 5 - 11 campaign still lingers. Baltimore's disappointing 2015 season may not have been as high-profile as that of the Colts or Cowboys, but it was as ugly as it was surprising for a team that has been a postseason shoe-in nearly every year since John Harbaugh took the helm. The Ravens sputtered to a 1 - 7 start before eventually losing Joe Flacco and Justin Forsett to season-ending injuries and turning their attention to the draft. But can there be hope for a team with an exorbitantly paid quarterback returning from a torn ACL? I think so. For one, nine of Baltimore's eleven losses were by one possession, and some of those were just plain awful luck like that last-minute fumble that Denver returned for a touchdown in Week 1 or that missed call against the Jaguars that gave them a field goal after time should have expired in Week 10. If the Ravens had had even a coin flip's chance in these games, that would have given them 3 - 4 more wins and a chance to make the playoffs. Moreover, Flacco will return to a much better set of offensive weapons than he had this time last year with the newly acquired Benjamin Watson and Mike Wallace. That should go a long way to shore up a Baltimore team that was mostly stumped by better defenses in 2015.
Hate: A Vacuum of Star Power
It was no secret after the Ravens' 2012 Super Bowl run that they would have to rebuild significant parts of their roster - Ozzie Newsome did it before when they won their first title fifteen years ago. But Baltimore finds itself in a no man's land of aging veterans, mediocre journeymen and young unknowns for the most part today. Steve Smith and Terrell Suggs have been cornerstones of the post-Super Bowl roster on their respective sides of the ball and locker room leaders, but they're both coming off of devastating injuries that will be hard to overcome fully at their age. Their best backups behind Justin Forsett are Terrance West and mystifying trade hot potato Trent Richardson. There are plenty of question marks in the secondary as well, which helped the team whiff on a 14-point lead against the Patriots the last time they were relevant in January. Anyway, this team tends to find ways to develop its young players and adjust schemes to their strengths and weaknesses, but they may not have nearly as much cushion in the talent department to make it work as well as in years past.
Cincinnati Bengals
Love: Being an Awesome 16-Game TeamI've made an absolute fool of myself many times on this blog betting that this will be the year the Bengals fall back to Earth, but their regular season record speaks for itself. Cincy has made the playoffs six times in the last seven years and won three division titles in the vaunted AFC North since that time. They looked almost unstoppable for large stretches of the 2015 season with Andy Dalton having his best start to date and the team getting it done on offense and defense against good competition for eight straight wins. Although the Bengals' chances at a Super Bowl run waned after Dalton broke his thumb in December, this team has proven to have a much higher ceiling than many thought when they are healthy and firing on all cylinders. With Peyton Manning hanging up his cleats for good and plenty of other teams in the AFC going through major transitions, whose to say this couldn't be the Bengals' year, just like it could have been any year lately?
Now headed into Year Five (!!!) of this blog, I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go in the NFL - the “unsolvable” read-option, the definition of a catch, Tebowmania and so forth. But one thing that has been as certain as death and taxes is that the Bengals will implode in improbable, spectacular ways when January rolls around. While their playoff shortcomings in prior years were due to bell-to-bell flameouts on offense courtesy of Andy Dalton and friends, they sure found a way to put a whole new miserable spin on things against the Steelers this past year. Up by one point and having intercepted the ball deep in Pittsburgh territory with less than two minutes to go, it seemed with total certainty we would finally see the Bengals break their NFL-leading playoff win drought in a hard-fought underdog battle. They could essentially kneel out and kick a field goal to force a hobbled Ben Roethlisberger to go all the way down field without any timeouts. One fumble and two of the very dumbest personal fouls you will ever see later, it was the Steelers who managed to kick the game-winning field goal in the final seconds, sending Bengals fans everywhere into a maddening descent into alcoholism, depression and leprosy, I can only assume. I've never seen anything like it, and it leads me to believe the Bengals are playing on the world's largest Indian burial ground. It's the only explanation for 25 years and counting of astounding playoff faceplants.
Cleveland Browns
Love: A Mystery Box of Young TalentI'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Browns have another year or five before they're playoff-ready again, but they had one of the most intriguing offseasons of any team in the league. For once, I'm saying this without an ounce of irony - maybe that new strategy guy Paul DePodesta can teach an old dawg some new moneyball tricks! Specifically, Cleveland amassed fourteen draft picks in May, which means they have twice as many new, cheap players to consider in their roster scheme compared to the average NFL team. It probably won't pay immediate dividends for a team that has lost a lot of the scant veteran talent it had going into 2016, but it's a very smart long-term move since college play and draft order aren't always great at predicting who will actually be any good in the pros. So keep your eye on these young Browns - someone's bound to rise from the ranks and crush you in Week 16 of your fantasy football tournament.
Hate: The Place Where Quarterbacks Go to Die
But RG3’s career was already DOA when he got to the Factory of Sadness, you say. That’s not even a cynical assessment for a guy who ended up playing safety on the Washington practice squad ten months ago. For the flashes of brilliance Robert Griffin showed during his Heisman season at Baylor and rookie season in DC, it has been truly depressing to watch his downward spiral of an NFL career since that time. It seems only natural that he now finds himself in Cleveland where he can join those same illustrious ranks as Josh McCown, Johnny Manziel, Austin Davis, Brian Hoyer, Jason Campbell, Brandon Weeden, Colt McCoy, Seneca Wallace, Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson - and that's just since 2009! I for one still want to see Griffin succeed - he was just so electrifying in his early years and has already paid for any sins imaginable by having to sit in the crosshairs between Dan Snyder and Jay Gruden. But assuming his knees don't dissolve into cotton candy in the first six weeks behind an offensive line without Alex Mack in it, the most well-known receiver he'll be throwing to is... looking... looking... Terrelle Pryor. Good Lord. So keep enjoying that Cavaliers trophy, Cleveland. This is going to be a loooong season.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Love: Return of the Offensive CerberusFor the past two seasons, we've been entertained and awed by the pyrotechnics of the Steelers' big three on offense and left wanting when they've come up injured by the time the postseason rolls around. When he's not on a gurney, Ben Roethlisberger still looks unflappable rolling around with defenders hanging on his sides in the pocket and slinging the ball down the post. When his knee tissue is totally connected, Le'Veon Bell is arguably the best hybrid running back and slot receiver on the field today. And whether or not he's the subject of a Bengals bounty scheme that has yet to be uncovered, Antonio Brown is the best wide receiver in the game - virtually uncoverable even when everyone else knows where the ball is going after the snap. So the beginning of the 2016 season means we get to watch all three of these guys in action at full strength once again, and that immediately makes Pittsburgh one of the most dangerous teams in an AFC where only the Patriots are a certainty. If they can just protect all limbs and vital organs with moderate success going into January, this offensive core gives the Steelers a real shot at that coveted seventh ring.
I'll start by saying that I know this is silly territory to even get into as a Saints fan and also that the Bengals brought everything that happened in that wild card game on themselves. But Pittsburgh's coaching staff has gotten a bit more unscrupulous than most (or at least gotten caught being unscrupulous) in recent years. Who can forget Mike Tomlin's "who me?" sideline interference against Jacoby Jones' kickoff return in 2013 that cost him $100,000 and the threat of a lost draft pick? More recently and more shadily, the Steelers sideline had another set of extracurriculars during that explosive wild card game in January. These two teams have stoked an increasingly nasty rivalry over the past few years, and things went south early on when Assistant Coach Mike Munchack grabbed Reggie Nelson's hair and swung him around on the sideline. Although Munchack's fine was later rescinded by the league, it's pretty hard to argue that this was accidental as the Zapruder film shows. Then of course during a timeout at the end of the game, another Steelers assistant, Joey Porter, went straight to the Bengals huddle to give them a piece of his mind after an awful hit on Antonio Brown. The fray that ensued resulted in Adam Jones' infamous personal foul penalty that put Pittsburgh squarely in field goal range to win the game. It was 100% the Bengals fault, but it's highly unlikely the game would have ended this way if Porter had stuck to his own huddle as is required in that big fat NFL rulebook.
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