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Now that we've wrapped up the NFC, we're switching to the opposite conference and identify the areas each team still could improve at. Once again, this could be a need for a starter, backup or one case even a schematic change. We are starting North and will move along clockwise throughout the week.
Baltimore Ravens – Center
The Ravens are building another dominant defense, with several key veterans and some young players, who are only getting better at this point. I think they have quality depth at pretty much every position on that side of the ball. Offensively, they are about to make a schematic overhaul once 32nd overall pick Lamar Jackson is waiting to become the dynamic new leader of this team.
However, as of now this still is Joe Flacco’s job to lose and he has a completely new set of weapons. They brought over John Brown from Arizona to once again give them a serious deep threat, Willie Snead will take over in the slot for them and they drafted two excellent tight-ends in South Carolina’s Hayden Hurst and Oklahoma’s Mark Andrews.
Alex Collins emerged as their featured back last season and they have some young talents behind him. Nevertheless, the offensive line hasn’t experienced continuity in recent years. They get their most important asset back in All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda and Ronnie Stanley is on the brink of becoming a top-tier left tackle in this league. I think you can pencil in two of these three at left guard and right tackle – James Hurst, Alex Lewis and Orlando Brown.
I’m not totally sold on what they have at center though. Baltimore picked up Matt Skura as an undrafted free agent two years ago and he started 12 games last season with Yanda on IR. They were forced to give up Ryan Jensen in free agency since they knew they wouldn’t be able to afford him.
He ended up proving them right on that thought, by signing a four-year, 42-million dollar contract with the Buccaneers. I have yet to see Skura at center, but he didn’t look too good at guard last season and I have some doubts. I think Bradley Bozeman, who they picked up late in the draft out of Alabama, is a rock-solid backup, but a sixth-round pick rarely cracks the starting lineup.
Cincinnati Bengals – Right tackle
I don’t think it’s very hard to point out the Bengals’ weaknesses last year. They needed to add to the linebacker level (as they did with the addition of former Bill Preston Brown) and nobody outside of A.J. Green has really proven to be a productive pass-catcher on that Cincinnati roster.
However, it has been that offensive line that has been killing this team since Andrew Whitworth went to L.A. last offseason. More specifically, the tackles were the ones, who performed at a sub-par level. Jake Fisher and Cedric Ogbuehi were embarrassed for the majority of last season, being rated lower than any other guys at the position, who started the majority of games on the year.
Cincy traded for the Bills’ Cordy Glenn, who can be a franchise left tackle, but he has had some serious injury concerns lately. Even if he stays healthy for 16 games, they will need to count on one of those starters from last year as their second book-end.
I always liked Fisher more than Ogbuehi, going back to their college days, and I think he could hang in there if Glenn mans down the left side and they give him some help, but I wouldn’t say that the Bengals are really happy with what they have at that spot either.
Bobby Hart was brought in once the Giants waived him. He could be a quality guy to carry on game day due to his position flexibility, but he’s no starter material either in my book. Like I said, I think this team can hang in there as long as they can slide to the right and help out Fisher by chipping his man with backs and tight ends, but once Glenn misses any time and they are forced to go back to their starting duo from last season, I’d be seriously worried.
Cleveland Browns – Left tackle
I know I’ve been a little critical of what the Browns did in the NFL Draft (as you can read in my draft review), but there is no doubt that this team will be able to compete on Sundays. Their defense is ready to go now that they’ve added a young cover-guy on the outside (Ohio State’s Denzel Ward) and they have surrounded whoever goes under center with some true weapons.
I know we’ll have to see if Josh Gordon continues to stay clean off the field and a guy like Corey Coleman develops into a playmaker, but they definitely have potential. They built one of the strongest offensive lines on paper the last offseason, but Joe Thomas finally got hurt after more than 10,000 consecutive snaps and retired after a fabulous 12-year career.
So the one guy the Browns have been able to count on during that stretch is now gone and they haven’t found anybody to replace him. From the players they had on the roster before the draft, Shon Coleman looked like he might shift to the left side.
Being drafted in the third round two years ago out of Auburn, I liked him at right tackle last season, but that will be Chris Hubbard’s spot to lose since they brought him in from New England. When they worked on their roster in Dallas, they selected UConn’s Austin Corbett very early in the second round.
I was a big fan of the big man when I watched his tape, but I thought he projected much better to one of three interior spots, especially center. I know he’s 6’4’’ and had four excellent years on the edge with the Wolfpack, but his lack of arm length is a concern.
For me, putting a rookie out there at the most crucial spot, who already has a natural disadvantage against guys like Myles Garrett and Carlos Dunlap, who he will face twice per year, might not be the best thing to do.
Pittsburgh Steelers – Inside linebacker
Assuming star running back Le'Veon Bell and the organization come to some sort of agreement until the start of the season, the Steelers have more firepower on offense than any other team in the league. Their O-line can be dominant, they have weapons all over the place and Big Ben proves why he will end in Hall of Fame almost on a weekly basis.
However, the defense just came off allowing 45 points to Blake Bortles and company in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. To be honest, I thought that side of the ball was really coming along with the growth of young Artie Burns to go with Joe Haden and Cam Heyward wrecking gameplan’s on a weekly basis.
That was until their leader Ryan Shazier went down with a horrible injury. This pick strongly depends on what the Steelers plan to do with first-round draft pick Terrell Edmunds. Pittsburgh made the biggest surprise selections of day one when they selected the former Virginia Tech safety with the 28th pick and I immediately thought about in which role they would plan to use him.
The obvious one would be as a matchup piece to slow down the Patriots’ Ron Gronkowski, who sliced them up in the second half of their week 15 matchup, but what is Edmunds’ base position? My belief was that they would use him in a similar role to Arizona’s Deone Buccanon, who they drafted as a safety, but slid right in at linebacker as well.
Edmunds is even a little bigger than the Cardinals defender and it would make sense to pair him up with Vince Williams, who they like to blitz more on passing downs. If Pittsburgh actually plans to put him in at safety though, they have a huge hole at inside linebacker without Shazier. I don’t see Jon Bostic or Tyler Matakevich (who I really liked at Temple) as starting NFL linebackers.
