Week 1 is upon us. In two days the NFL regular season kicks off with a Super Bowl rematch between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos. It could not have come any sooner, as many fan bases are anxiously waiting for the season to get started. Quite a bit has happened since I started writing these divisional previews, and I’ll cover those events later this week when I make my final predictions for the season.

In the meantime, there are still four divisions to get to before Thursday night, so lets not waste anytime. Today I’ll be looking at the AFC North, which saw an interesting offseason for the two teams at the top of the division, a complete overhaul by Cleveland, and a ho-hum offseason from Baltimore. So let’s dive right in with those two teams fighting at the top of the division.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Things are looking pretty good in the Steel City this season. That is despite the one-year suspension to receiver Martavis Bryant and a three-game suspension to running back LeVeon Bell. Ben Roethlisberger leads the way once again, and while there are pundits that have doubts about him this season, I am not in that boat. Big Ben still has the best receiver in the league at his disposal in Antonio Brown (sorry Falcons and Giants fans). Brown is squarely in his prime and is virtually impossible to cover defensively. Pittsburgh gets former All-Pro center Maurkice Pouncey back from injury to anchor the offensive line. Despite the suspension to Bell, the Steelers will be just fine at running back with DeAngelo Williams, who looked rejuvenated last season in Bell’s absence. I expect this offense to be one of the best in the league, especially once the Killers B’s (Big Ben, Brown, and Bell) are all on the field at the same time in Week 4.

Defensively the Steelers are building around a young core of linebackers who have showed incredible promise. Ryan Shazier looks like an absolute stud and could be the star of this defense. Unfortunately, rookie standout Bud Dupree was recently placed on the injured reserve list and will undergo surgery to repair a torn abdominal muscle. Dupree will be out until at least midseason, eligible to return after Week 8. That is a major blow to this defense, which badly needs to a presence in the pass rush. While this is far from the fabled Steel Curtain defense, or even the Troy Polamalu-led defenses from a few years ago, this unit is far from an issue.

I like Pittsburgh to win this division and depending on the health of the key players, could make a deep run in the playoffs. This offense is lethal when running on all cylinders and can mask some of the issues they could have on defense.

Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals are a bit of an enigma coming into this season. After an ugly exit in the playoffs last season, Cincinnati underwent a potentially costly offseason. Offensive coordinator Hue Jackson left to be the head coach in Cleveland. Receivers Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu left in free agency, while their breakout star Tyler Eifert suffered an injury in the Pro Bowl and may not be ready until Week 4. They still have an elite receiver in AJ Green, and Andy Dalton is coming off of a career season (albeit an injury shortened one). Jeremy Hill will have to step up in the running game after a disappointing season in 2015, although he showed flashes of his potential in 2014. Cincinnati is hoping that rookie Tyler Boyd can be the answer to the losses of Jones and Sanu. Ultimately, this means there are a lot of question marks at the start of the season and we’ll have a much better idea about this offense come midseason. One note to make here, is that this offense is one more injury away from going into a complete tailspin as AJ Green is already a little banged up but capable of playing.

Cincinnati features a tough unit on defense, although it’s a unit that is capable of hurting itself with penalties and questionable play (see last season’s playoff game). That being said this was a unit that ranked second in points allowed and eleventh in yards allowed, and return most of the defense intact.

This is a playoff caliber team when healthy, but like I mentioned with the offense, its hinging on getting healthy and staying that way. Once they get to the playoffs though, we know the story all too well as they have been a perennial one-and-done under coach Marvin Lewis. At best this is a wild card team, at worst…well lets just say it won’t be pretty.

Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore comes into this season with almost no love from the national pundits. Last season was a disaster as a litany of injuries derailed the season before Halloween. Quarterback Joe Flacco suffered an ACL tear, running back Justin Forsett broke his forearm, receiver Steve Smith tore his Achilles tendon, and that’s just the big names that went down. 2016 returns all three of the big names on this offense, despite Baltimore cutting and then resigning Forsett (which was just strange, in my opinion). Smith reneged on his retirement promise to give it one more go this year. To be perfectly honest though, there is not a ton to get excited about here. The running back situation could be a mess, as well as the receiving core.

On the other side of the ball, the Ravens made a splash in free agency by bringing in safety Eric Weddle to fortify the back end of the defense. Weddle has a nose for the football and always gets himself in the right spot to force a turnover. He is a much needed addition to a defense that ranked 30^th in takeaways last season. This defense actually ranked eighth in yards allowed, but 24^th in points allowed. In addition to increasing turnover numbers, the Ravens will have to be better on third down as this defense allowed an average of nine plays per drive.

Something about this team just screams 8-8 at best. They play division rivals incredibly tough, but I just don’t think there is enough here to warrant a playoff run in Baltimore this season.

Cleveland Browns

Moneyball has made its way to the NFL. Cleveland has undergone a complete roster overhaul under the supervision of Paul DePodesta, who formerly worked under Billy Beane for the Oakland A’s and was the assistant GM for the New York Mets. With a new analytics driven player personnel department mindset, the winds of change returned to Cleveland. In addition to the “Moneyball” experiment, the Browns hired Hue Jackson as head coach after a very successful tenure as an assistant and offensive coordinator in Cincinnati. Jackson will be tasked at trying to mend the career of Robert Griffin III, who will be the starting quarterback this season after a disastrous end to his time in Washington. Griffin has a lot to prove, which is the overall theme for this offense. Beleaguered receiver Josh Gordon will return from his suspension in Week 5 in what looks to be his final shot in the NFL. Rookie Corey Coleman was the first receiver selected in the draft and Cleveland is pinning some serious hope on the young man out of Baylor University. The Browns will also need to hope that tight end Gary Barnidge was not a one-year wonder, after a breakout season in 2015.

The Browns have been clearing house in recent weeks on defense, getting rid of multiple players from one of the worst defenses in the league last season. This leaves this unit in a state of flux. Unfortunately this means the Browns will be putting a lot of stock in rookies and undrafted free agents to make up for the overhaul.

Ultimately, this is a team that is a few years out from being relevant in the league. The future looks better once they get to use the draft picks Cleveland is stockpiling put it’ll be a long season for the Browns.

 

I’ll be back Thursday with the final previews for the AFC South, NFC South, and NFC West. Send me your thoughts in the comments section or on social media. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.

Welcome back everyone! I hope it was a great holiday weekend for all. I almost wish the weekend wouldn’t end, especially with the amazing games we witnessed with college football’s opening week. If you missed it, I feel sorry because this certainly lived up to the billing of the best opening weekend ever (you know aside from the Alabama game…which I totally misjudged). There was even a shocking deal in the NFL to add to all of the craziness, but more on that later.

Chaos in the top-25 reigned supreme as a record seven ranked teams lost on the season’s opening weekend. Of those seven, three were being considered serious contenders for the national title. Oklahoma’s title hopes ran into a buzzsaw as they lost to Houston in the Cougars backyard (but allegedly was a “neutral” site game). This only goes to show that you can never hop on the Sooners annual hype train, as it always goes off the rails and never reaches its destination. Houston put foot to behind, making its own statement to the college football world. The Cougars have a long road to go not being in a Power Five conference, but this is a potentially great win to have on the resume.

Speaking of statements, how about Texas on Sunday night? Notre Dame-Texas set the bar for “Game of the Year” pretty high with their double-overtime thriller. The Longhorns ran the ball at will against the Irish defense in crunch time and proved to be the difference maker Sunday night. Texas coach Charlie Strong can fan the flames of the proverbial hot seat for now, but that is a monumental win for his team as he continues to rebuild that Longhorn program (another win against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry game might even remove him from the hot seat).

The Irish have only themselves to blame for that loss. Brian Kelly may regret his decision to play both of his quarterbacks during the game, as DeShone Kizer was clearly the man for the job. If Kizer had been in the entire time, that may have been a completely different game. Also the defense might want to run some extra tackling drills in practice until further notice. The game-winning play for Texas should have been stopped three yards in the backfield, among other miscues by the Irish defense.

The other top-10 team to go down last weekend was the LSU Tigers, who have a familiar problem; poor play at the quarterback position. For a team as talented as the Tigers, you would think it would have a quarterback that could at least manage the game. You can’t deny the effort of Wisconsin in that game (chalk that up as another missed call for me from last week’s viewer guide). Also, you’ve probably seen the video of the ending of this game, but LSU certainly should be embarrassed by the cheap shot thrown by Josh Boutte. It was a classless end to a tightly contested game.

LSU can at least thank Ole Miss for taking some of the heat off them. The Rebels absolutely crumbled last night against Florida State. Talk about the tale of two halves, it looked like the teams switched uniforms at halftime. Ole Miss was in total control of that game in the first half, moving the ball at will against the Seminoles. FSU coach Jimbo Fisher must have given one hell of a halftime speech because his team came out looking like a totally different team in the second half. The defense forced four turnovers led by defensive end DeMarcus Walker, who finished the game with 4.5 sacks and a forced fumble. Walker and the ‘Noles defense sparked the comeback which included a star-making debut for redshirt-freshman quarterback Deondre Francois. Francois finished the game with 419 yards passing and added another 59 yards on the ground.

Ole Miss and LSU highlighted a rough weekend for the vaunted SEC, which saw seven teams take a loss last weekend. But hey, at least it has Alabama to lead the pack.

On to the big news from the NFL this past weekend, which saw Sam Bradford traded from Philadelphia to Minnesota. The Eagles made out like bandits in this deal by getting a 2017 first round pick and a conditional fourth rounder in 2018 (which can become as high as a second rounder if the Vikings make a deep playoff run). Desperation for the Vikings gave Philadelphia quite a bit of leverage here, and Eagles GM Howie Roseman capitalized. It marks the beginning of the Carson Wentz era in Philadelphia, and a potentially season-saving move for the Vikings.

Before I wrap things up I want to send my congratulations to Green Bay quarterback Joe Callahan for making the 53-man roster. Callahan was one of the top performers from the preseason and certainly earned his place on that team. I want to wish him the best of luck as he begins what is hopefully a long career in the league, he deserves it. Everyone at home is rooting for you Joe.

 

Stay tuned to Shooting the Moon for part five of my NFL preview later today as I look at the AFC North. It’s going to be a busy week with the NFL season starting on Thursday. As always, follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.