AFC North Week 9 Power Rankings: Ravens dominate, Bengals rebound, Browns look to 2025

Steelers relax as the AFC North is a 3 team race again

Week 9 in the AFC North has officially wrapped up. Three teams played this week while the Pittsburgh Steelers were on a bye this week. The Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals had resounding victories, while the Cleveland Browns will prepare for 2025 and beyond.

Let’s do the rankings.

1. Baltimore Ravens

This is the best team in the division. Period.

2. Pittsburgh Steelers

The next couple of weeks will tell us if this team is legit or not

3. Cincinnati Bengals

Much needed win considering how things were heading south

4. Cleveland Browns

It is what it is, fire up the mock drafts

Baltimore dominates Denver, shows that they are the class of the division

No need to overthink it. If the Baltimore Ravens play like they did against the Denver Broncos, this team will be back in the AFC title game. Offensively? Dominant performance. Baltimore’s offense got better earlier this week after the team traded for wide receiver Diontae Johnson from the Carolina Panthers. Johnson didn’t play today but you can imagine the passing offense getting much better when he integrates into the lineup.

Running back Derrick Henry has been dominant since joining Baltimore and the running game has been potent.

It was a coaching and performance masterclass for Baltimore today. Despite what others might say, this is the best team in the division and it’s not necessarily close at this point. Baltimore’s defense has its issues but as long as the unit becomes average (they can add another edge rusher to help) this team can make a deep playoff run.

Cincinnati gets much needed win with huge Thursday night game looming

The Cincinnati Bengals loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last week was concerning for many reasons. One, the defense looked collapsed in the 2nd half. Two, towards the end of the 4th quarter the team appeared to show signs of quitting.

It didn’t happen this week. Granted the Las Vegas Raiders aren’t a good team but the Bengals needed this win to gain some form of positive momentum. Quarterback Joe Burrow had a day today, throwing for 5 touchdowns and running back Chase Brown has essentially turned into the lead back for this team. Tight end Mike Gesicki had himself a day (he also pulled out the Griddy which he needs to retire).

Defensively, the unit is still pretty poor (they allowed the Raiders to score on the opening drive) but reportedly the team is looking into finding help on the defensive side of the ball. Anything would help at this point considering how the unit has held the team back. As far as their playoff hopes go, the team is 4-5. However, the AFC isn’t strong this year so making the playoffs is still on the table.

Thursday night matchup with the division-leading Baltimore Ravens awaits.

Browns fall to 2-7, team heads into bye with questions to be answered

Going into this game against the Los Angeles Chargers, I was the only one on the panel that chose the Chargers to go to Cleveland to beat the Browns. Why? For these two reasons.

• Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter would give the Browns offense issues.
• The Chargers are a lot better than people think

Head coach Jim Harbaugh has his Michigan/San Francisco 49ers influence all over this team and the Cleveland Browns had no answers for them. Offensively, the team struggled like they have all year. Running game was nonexistent, offensive line struggled and quarterback Jameis Winston struggled.

Defensively, I thought the defensive line played well enough but coverage busts in the secondary sunk the team. Cleveland’s secondary was better off staying in man coverage the entire game instead of zone because every time they went to it, quarterback Justin Herbert exploited it. Coming into the season, this team had hopes of contending for a Super Bowl but now at 2-7 they will look towards next season.

Some players are likely going to be traded at Tuesday’s trade deadline, along with Za’Darius Smith, and with the bye coming up, people will ask what will the Browns do now.

Prepare for 2025.