There are a lot of ways to fill the informational blight when your NFL team is on summer vacation. One way is to make predictions for your team’s expected W-L record in the coming season…and for your rivals.
The Ravens are catching some negative vibes from such prediction makers…as in from all three ESPN writers who cover the Ravens’ AFC North rivals.
Sarah Ellison of the Ravens home website documented the haters:
“Baltimore will not make the playoffs for the second year in a row,” Cleveland Browns reporter Pat McManamon bluntly wrote.
“I couldn’t help but chuckle at how Pittsburgh Steelers reporter Jeremy Fowler tried to soften the blow of his prediction—“That doesn’t have to be an awful thing, because the Ravens will improve greatly from the five-win campaign in 2015. The Ravens will make at least a four-win jump in 2016. … The Ravens will be much improved in the secondary and should be healthier than last season. Flacco will have more weapons to utilize. This is a team trending upward.”
Baltimore doesn’t see itself in a rebuilding mode and wouldn’t be satisfied with simply “trending upward.”
Still, the AFC rival writers do make two good points about the Ravens’ degree of difficulty in the upcoming season:
1) Baltimore plays in the NFL’s best division;
2) The Ravens have an incredibly tough four-game stretch to close the season.
I think by “best division” the writers mean if you combine the total playoff appearances of the Steelers, Ravens and Bengals over the past 8 years, you have the highest total of combined playoff appearances by three teams in any single division in the NFL.
“It really has very little to do with the Ravens themselves and more to do with the other teams in the division,” Cincinnati Bengals reporter Coley Harvey wrote. “Anyone who follows the NFL closely knows the AFC North is the best there is in football. I mean, there’s really no debate about that, is there? With the Steelers, Bengals and Ravens all relevant and perennial postseason contenders, there is no question this is the best division.
“It is possible those three teams all will make it into the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, but it remains more likely that only two will make the postseason. Right now, a couple of months before the start of the regular season, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati have, on paper, the best rosters in the AFC North.”
The Ravens travel to their three biggest rivals in the final four weeks of the season: New England, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. “That’s brutal,” wrote Fowler. “The Ravens’ schedule is designed for a late-season stumble.”
Welp, that’s one way to look at it. Another way is to view that 4-game stretch run as the perfect opportunity for the Ravens to take the division into their own claws…er talons…I mean, hands.
For the fifth time in six years, Baltimore will finish its season in Cincy. The Ravens have lost five in a row to Cincinnati, and they haven’t won at Paul Brown Stadium since 2011.
“Baltimore’s most important games this season will be the ones against the Steelers and Bengals,” wrote Harvey. “Win three of the four and the Ravens could be in the mix for the division title.”
What the rival writers are possibly missing is the Ravens are going to be better defensively in 2016. Some key pieces are coming back healthy. Jimmy Smith will finally start the season with a healthy foot. It is still believed pass rusher Terrell Suggs will be back to healthy form. Eric Weddle will be quarterbacking the secondary at safety. On offense returning injured players include guys like Joe Flacco, Steve Smith Sr. and Justin Forsett.
In other words, the personnel is by default already upgraded greatly compared to the team which finished 2015 at 5-11.
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