are we on the upswing

You really going to trust Burrow not to miss half of the season again.

 

I think it's tough to go a whole season having to win in a shootout every week.

 

Don't disagree but they are the one team with the offensive weapons to do it. If they manage to improve that OL just to average then it would be like Rodgers with two + receivers.

 

aaron rodgers has been more durable in his career than either joe or lamar. he has 3 season where he has missed more than one game out of 20 years. jackson has missed more in 4 out of 8. burrow has missed 3 out of 6. so this talk of him being fragile and old and doesn't want hit is BS.

 

Cleveland: still has a strong defense, and some really nice offensive pieces....
However, they turned over 4 of 5 o-line spots and no one knows what they have at qb yet.. those are 2 huge ifs...

Cincinnati: any team sporting Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins is going to score, and score often... they also lost their best pass rusher on defense, while acquiring a damn strong presence on the inside of the line..... that secondary still has a long way to go, and I'm not sold on their lber unit.... pretting sure they're still gonna be on the losing end of shootouts most weeks

Baltimore: the offense will still be highly productive, and i'm pretty sure the new coaching staff will actually use Derrick Henry on a regular basis to keep Lamar from running too much, while age at the te spot will be an issue .... their defense is still suspect on the outside though and can and will be had


Pittsburgh: I like our upside at the qb position post Rodgers, and i'm extremely high on our wr, rb and te rms..... our o-line is deep and strong.... most experts look at our ilb unit as the weakness of the defense... i say that their job should be relatively easy behind our d-line.. i also maintain that we have the deepest olb rm in the league.. our cb's are young and strong..... i worry about the S unit though because of injury history and I still have ptsd over Mike Tomlin's allergies to the deep middle .... overall, the arrow is definitely pointing up

 

I think the OL will end the season as the best unit we've had in a while.

But I think it's likely going to be a tough start to the year for them. Looking more and more like every position but center will have a different start than last season.

 

They did acquire Lawrence.

I don't think he's at his peak anymore.

But their D will be better than it was.

And if they can keep Burrow upright, they'll be a good team. It's a tall order for them. But having a better defense should help protect Burrow too.

Another (somewhat related) question, is do we think we can keep Rodgers as healthy as he was last year? If we cut Mason to keep the lottery tickets (which I hope is what we do even though I like Mason), we won't really have an NFL backup QB. So if we lose our 42 year old QB for any games, it's probably going to be bad.

 

AFC North should be competitive this year with 3 of 4 teams making major changes from top down in the coaching ranks. Bengals have the edge, IF.... they can get the defense to at least average.