Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Myles Garrett, TJ Watt and others are great but teams lack Super Bowl chances
With the Cleveland Browns barely hanging on to any playoff hopes, talking about the Super Bowl is an interesting topic. The Browns reside in a division that has been loaded with very good teams, many of which toting Super Bowl aspirations along with them year after year.
Cleveland had hoped they could join them with the acquisition of QB Deshaun Watson who was supposed to take them from good to great. Instead, Watson has been an impediment to the goal and the future.
The AFC North joined historical company in 2023 with 43 victories combined between the four teams. The division was eight games better than any other division in football last year.
Yet, as our weekly AFC North Power Rankings have alluded to, the division has not been great this year when you break down each individual team.
- The Browns have been a huge disappointment
- The Cincinnati Bengals join Cleveland in the disappointment category despite Joe Burrow playing great
- The Baltimore Ravens have one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL and have dropped games to the lowly Las Vegas Raiders and Browns despite Lamar Jackson having an MVP type season
- The Pittsburgh Steelers, once again, seem to be winning on defense and moxy, along with a timely throw by Russell Wilson every once in a while. They also lost to the lowly Dallas Cowboys and Browns.
Each team has at least one elite talent with Myles Garrett, TJ Watt, Burrow and Jackson but none of them looked poised to win the Super Bowl. The 2012 Ravens, led by Joe Flacco, were the last team to hoist the trophy at the end of the season.
The Bengals came close three years ago in what might have been their best chance before the roster got too expensive for owner Mike Brown.
Having to face off with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs means good is not good enough in the AFC. While a complete failure so far, that explains why Cleveland took a huge swing on Watson. They bet that good, whether with Baker Mayfield, Jacoby Brissett or Joe Flacco would not be good enough to get past Mahomes and win a Super Bowl.
While the Ravens and Steelers are highly likely to make the postseason, each has huge deficits that can be taken advantage of. Not being able to stop a good passing attack (Baltimore) or have a highly explosive passing attack (Pittsburgh) just isn’t enough to win “the big one.”
The AFC North is good but it isn’t great. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing but expectations should be set with an AFC Championship appearance as best.