Remember in school when your 2nd grade teacher asked you to write an essay of what you wanted to do when you were older. How many young boys wrote, “I want to play football for a team who’s owner has a fake love for heavy metal in order to hide his real fetish for Barry Manilow.” Worse yet, how would you like to play for the owner of the rival team who is twice the size of the guy who deep throats his Sulpin IPA during every drink break, and almost got his ass kicked by the guy despite outweighing him by 120 pounds? Welcome to the AFC North.
This division has 14 of the first 32 picks in the draft in the AFC. In this segment, I am going to break down the strengths and weaknesses of each team to determine what each team should be looking for with their picks.
Danny has the first pick in the draft and not even he can screw this one up. The Bengals team aren’t going to make the playoffs this year. This team just lacks the depth and fire power to contend with the top teams in the league and the Browns and Steelers in the division. Here is a breakdown of strengths and weaknesses of his team:
Strengths: QB, CB/S: Luck is one of the best QBs in the league, but lack depth behind him. However, with Luck and his great offensive line, you don’t much else. The Bengals boast 4 CBs/S who scored over 200 points last year.
Weaknesses: RB/WR, DE, and LB. The Bengals may lose one of the best weapons in the league with Tyreek Hill. AJ Green should be back which will help. Other than that, they lack any other startable player at the RB and WR position. They only have one startable DE and two startable LBs so acquiring depth is critical here.
Draft Picks: 1.01 and 2.01.
Selections: The Bengals need to take the best offensive player at 1.01. At 2.01 they can choose the best WR available at that pick or a DE or 3rd best LB.
Wow does this team suck. If you gave Matt the choice of building through the draft or building through RFA, he would probably ask if suicide was an option. He makes my Raiders franchise look like the real world Patriots. Matt’s team has alot of weaknesses, but I’m sure he can get some help from the draft. See Below.
Strengths: QB, LB, S: The Ravens walk out Aaron Rodgers who he can count on each week. As a backup, he has Lamar Jackson who could be one of the best fantasy QBs in the near future. His LB are also pretty sold with 3 guys over 200 points. Matt has a nice group of safeties too.
Weaknesses: RB/WR, DE: Matt’s top guy Kareem Hunt is out for a bit and will never be the same. Other than that he has Eric Ebron and Devonta Freeman. I predict Freeman will be a 300 pt guy this year to make up for the loss of Hunt. Matt also loses JPP to his neck issue. Rumor has it JPP was watch R&T and hurt his neck doing some fist pumping.
Draft Picks: No picks in the 1st and 2nd round. Top pick is 3.20. Make it count.
The Browns have a nice team. They have alot of strengths and not alot of weaknesses. Kyle’s biggest problem is that he has alot of really good players in the final year of their contracts so he needs to win this year. Kyle has a bunch of picks so he will either try to package them and trade up or go for depth to fortify his future.
Strengths:QB, RB/WR, DT, LB, S: The Browns are absolutely loaded with depth at the RB/WR position. They have two really good DTs, and two really good safeties. Their LBs are decent but they could use some depth here.
Weaknesses: LB Depth is their biggest weakness. I expect the Browns to grab the 3rd or 4th best LB with one of their picks and then possibly a DE, and then best available player to add depth.
Draft Picks; 1.14, 1.15 2.06, 2.07, 2.08, 2.16. This is a lot of picks that Kyle can use to move up in the draft or he can build depth to an already powerful team. I think Kyle would be wise to package some of these picks to move up the draft board. He may be able to get some promising RB/WR help, but nobody at this level may be able to crack his starting lineup.
The Steelers are in nice shape. They have a good mix of young talent and several nice draft picks. Spencer definitely has the ability to control the first two rounds of the draft. His young players will have to continue to develop to pass up the Browns this year.
Strengths: QB, RB/WR, S: He has two nice QBs in Stafford and Wentz. Spencer has some great players at the top of his RB/WR category: Hopkins is awesome on any team. Diggs, White, Lindsay, and Moore are nice pieces to have. Spencer has three nice safeties.
Weaknesses: DE Depth, DT Depth, LB Depth, TE, : These positions aren’t weak spots for him. He just needs depth. He has some nice players he just needs more guys.
Draft Picks: 1.04, 1.05, 1.10, 1.11, 2.02, 2.14: Spencer can do alot with these picks. I think Spencer will spread the picks around and acquire a bunch of different positions. I predict that he goes LB and best RB/WR with the 1.04 and 1.05. Bosa would be a agood fit for the Steelers but he will be gone by the 1.10. He will go TE at 1.10 or 1.11. For 2.02 he could take someone like Ferrell. The success of the Steelers will depend very much on how well Spencer uses his draft capital.
Stay tuned for draft previews for the rest of the AFC divisions.