AFC North Division Preview (Part I)

Looking ahead to what should be an interesting season for the Ravens and their AFC North rivals, 2010 finds new faces in some cities and familiar foes noticeably absent from others. Here is a look at how the year could play out as we enter preseason play.

1. Baltimore Ravens (2009 season: 9-7) Having leaned heavily on the run game over the course of Flacco’s first 2 years, the Ravens look ready to expand their playbook, and with the acquisition of Anquan Boldin certainly have the personnel in place to do so. Running back Ray Rice is a major contributor to the passing game out of the backfield and should help to take some stress of Flacco as he is called to throw the ball much more in his 3^rd year. The defense may take a step back this year as the secondary has been decimated by injury in recent weeks. Still, the North as a whole doesn’t have a team to match up with the Ravens at this juncture.
2. Cincinnatti Bengals (2009: 10-6) Last season’s surprise team looks to repeat their divisional crown, and has added some artillery to help towards that effort. Adding veteran WRs Antonio Bryant and Terrell Owens, the Bengals give Carson Palmer at least a few more options to choose from. How well those options will hold up and co-exist remains to be seen. Owens is 36 and was likely only signed because of concerns about Bryant’s lingering knee trouble. When healthy, Bryant would probably be the most talented (and ironically least heralded) of the Bengals’ wideouts, with Chad Johnson now 32 years old and having not caught more than 72 balls since 2007. Cedric Benson proved to be reliable running the ball when healthy; hopefully the head-cases split wide won’t shift the Bengals offensive focus away from the running game moving forward.