It’s been no fun being a Baltimore Ravens fan the last couple years with John Harbaugh’s squad unable to produce a winning record in either. He was just given a vote of confidence by the owners with an extension. Maybe some more job security lets him loosen up a bit since he’s looked all choked up on those sidelines of late. Baltimore won four of its six games in the division last season, but lost at both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. It’s going to have to hold serve at home and at the very least split with those two to have a shot of winning the AFC North this season.
AFC North Odds at BookMaker.eu
Baltimore Ravens +575
Cincinnati Bengals +348
Cleveland Browns +4500
Pittsburgh Steelers -270
Why the Baltimore Ravens Will Win the AFC North
Ozzie Newsome is no dummy. This guy has been one of the best drafters in the business. He always seems to come up with that special someone that leaves everyone saying, “Oh yeah” once they turn into a superstar. Think Todd Heap. Think Ray Rice. Think Joe Flacco. He went out and bolstered his defense this past offseason after the unit gave up over 20 points and 320 yards per game last season.
Baltimore has always been all about getting just enough from the offense to allow for the defense to bring it on home. If there’s one thing this franchise knows how to do, it’s to take young talented defensive players and turn them into studs.
Nothing like coming off the worst season of your career to get the competitive juices flowing! Once a fringe fantasy football asset, Flacco is now thought of nothing more than a weekly streamer completely dependent upon matchup. He’s never been a set it and forget it type guy like Aaron Rodgers, but he has been fantasy relevant.
That was far from the case last season even though he threw for the most amount of yards in his career ( 4,317 ). The 20 interceptions were a downer, but not even close to the 15 interceptions that almost always seemed to occur at the absolute worst time. Though he’s not in danger of losing his job, he needs to be much more efficient for the offense to give the defense any sort of relief.
Should his knee finally be healthy, a big bounceback year could be in store with the front office bringing in cap casualty Jeremy Maclin to serve as his WR1. A role filled admirably by Steve Smith Sr. the last couple seasons. Whatever the offense can do to get into a position to score points, it knows it can almost always rely on Justin Tucker to finish off a drive with points.
Why the Baltimore Ravens Won't Win the AFC North
But that’s just it. This offense has been nothing much to write home about. That was mainly because Flacco was asked to win every game with his arm due to the rushing attack struggling to find much traction on the ground. Baltimore rushed for less than 92 yards per game ( No. 28 ) and averaged just 4.0 yards per carry ( No. 22 ). Due to the unit’s ineptitude, Flacco was forced to throw the most passes of his career.
That experiment didn’t go well with him connecting on only 64.9 percent of his 672 passes. The effort saw him log a QB rating in the low 80s for a second straight season. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look to be getting better in the backfield anytime soon with Kenneth Dixon done for the year with a meniscus tear and Terrance West the best returning running back. Danny Woodhead is a nice addition, when healthy, and on passing downs, but he isn’t going to get the yardage between the tackles. Flacco proved he could dink and dunk all of last season. He needs the run game to set up deeper strikes downfield, and the Ravens still don’t look to be fine-tuned in that area.
Tony Jefferson and Brandon Carr were brought into help solidify an aging and injury prone secondary. As was Marlon Humphrey in the draft. Baltimore feels it has the young talent to mold into another dominating unit. However, the secondary is at its absolute best when Jimmy Smith is on the field. It’s night and day how tougher a defense the Ravens possess when he’s healthy.
Sadly, the injury bug has been unkind to him throughout his career, and that doesn’t bode well considering he’s entering his age 29 season. Regardless of how good the new guys are, they won’t be nearly as good as they could be with Smith roaming the sidelines. Baltimore needs its stud cornerback on the field to combat the passing attacks of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to win this division.
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