My grades for the AFC North starting lineups. Make sure you know who is a keeper and who you should drop going into the first week.
| Ravens | |
| QB | Joe Flacco |
| He has not had a great season since he got paid. D+ | |
| RB | Alex Collins |
| Much better than the previous group at 116y/g B | |
| wr | Michael Crabtree & John Brown & Willie Snead |
| BA hopes that it was the WRS not the QB that lead to 29th passing yardage. BA Changed out all WRS but that won’t help C- | |
| te | Hayden Hurst R |
| BA hopes that first round pick Hurst can put some life into TE pos. C | |
| OL | Lt Ronnie Stanley lg James Hurst c Ryan Jensen FA rg Marshal Yanda rt Alex Lewis |
| Nothing special here except Yanda IF he can stay healthy. C | |
| DL | le Brandon Williams nt Michael Pierce re Willie Henry |
| DL over performed B | |
| lb | slb Albert McClellan lilb C.J. Mosley rilb Patrick Onwuasor wolb Terrell Suggs |
| Mosley & Suggs are special rest are not. C+ | |
| DB | lc Brandon Carr rc Jimmy Smith fs Tony Jefferson ss Eric Weddle |
| S are both solid but CBS are less solid. B | |
| BENGALS | |
| QB | Andy Dalton |
| Dalton has not won a playoff game. That is why we call him RV. C- | |
| RB | Joe Mixon |
| Bad OL hurt Run gm but Mixon played well. B- | |
| WR | A.J. Green & Brandon LaFell & John Ross |
| Green is outstanding, Rest are decent. B- | |
| TE | Tyler Eifert |
| CN was smart enough to resign UFA Eifert. B | |
| OL | lt Cordy Glenn T lg Clint Boling c Billy Price R rg Trey Hopkins rt Jake Fisher |
| Left side is OK. Rest not so much. C- | |
| DL | le Carlos Dunlap lt Chris Baker rt Geno Atkins re Michael Johnson |
| DL is old but still effective. B+ | |
| lb | slb Nick Vigil mlb Preston Brown wlb Vontaze Burfict 4gm susp |
| fa Brown helps but Vontaze Burfict is the key to the group B+ | |
| DB | lc Dre Kirkpatrick rc William Jackson fs Shawn Williams ss George Iloka |
| DBS did not preform well last year. C- | |
| Browns | |
| QB | Tyrod Taylor or Baker Mayfield |
| Everyone in CL says that Taylor will start. I don’t believe them. C | |
| RB | Carlos Hyde & Duke Johnson Jr. |
| Hyde is the runner Johnson is the receiver. Crowell escaped No Run CL. C- | |
| wr | Jarvis Landry & Josh Gordon + SOMEONE ELSE. |
| The 3rd WR won’t be Coleman. He is a DISASTER. Key is can Gordon stay on the field? B+ | |
| TE | David Njoku |
| Can he catch the ball? D | |
| OL | lt Shon Coleman lg Joel Bitonio c JC Tretter rg Kevin Zeitler rt Chris Hubbard |
| GCG is fine. OTS are the biggest issues C | |
| DL | le Emmanuel Ogbah lt Larry Ogunjobi rt Trevon Coley re Myles Garrett |
| Garrett is solid but the rest are soft. C- | |
| lb | slb Jamie Collins mlb Joe Schobert wlb Mychal Kendricks |
| Collins was bad last yr. Kendricks & Schobert are OK. C | |
| DB | lc T.J. Carrie FA rc Denzel Ward R fs Damarious Randall T ss Jabrill Peppers |
| Peppers was 40 yrds behind the D. Carrie & Ward should help improve pass cov. D+ | |
| Steelers | |
| QB | Ben Roethlisberger |
| Roethlisberger had talked about retirement often. A- | |
| RB | Le’Veon Bell |
| Bell is outstanding A | |
| WR | Antonio Brown & Juju Smith-Schuster & James Washington R |
| Brown is outstanding rest are OK. B+ | |
| TE | Jesse James |
| James had a good season last yr. B | |
| ol | lt Alejandro Villanueva lg Ramon Foster c Maurkice Pouncey rg David DeCastro rt Marcus Gilbert |
| OL was solid with 3 players making the all pro team. A- | |
| DL | le Cameron Heyward nt Javon Hargrave re Stephon Tuitt |
| Heyward is an All pro but Tuitt fell off after signing a 10 M | |
| lb | lolb Bud Dupree lilb Jonathan Bostic rilb Vince Williams rolb T.J. Watt |
| LB Group got better with FA Bostic. Ryan Shazier may never play again. B+ | |
| DB | Lc Joe Haden rc Artie Burns fs Morgan Burnett ss Terrell Edmunds R |
| pt is still trying to find the perfect combination C- | |
Discover more from FryingPanSports
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.