Post by Pittsburgh Steelers (Malachi) on Sept 9, 2021 20:38:25 GMT -5
Mel Blount Division Preview: This division did not play out how I expected it to last season, outside of what Cleveland did. I expected the Ravens to be the clear front runner of the division with the Titans and Steelers trailing behind. Thanks to some injury problems for both Baltimore and Tennessee and the Steelers adding George Kittle and David Johnson, it was the Steelers who came out on top of the division and claimed the top spot in the AFC. The Browns began the process of turning the team around this off-season with 7 rookies, the Ravens and Titans mostly stood pat aside from adding their 3 rookies through the draft, and the Steelers made a plethora of moves. So can the Ravens or Titans up end the Steelers at the top or will the Steelers remain the team to beat and look to get some playoff redemption this season?
Baltimore Ravens (Dave): 2020 Record: 8-4
Headed into 2020, I fully believed the Ravens would be one of the top 2-3 teams in the AFC and be fighting with the Chargers to be the AFC representative in the LHL Super Bowl. That did not happen and Courtland Sutton going down week 1 did not help things for Dave at all as it blew up his WR core and left him relying on Christian Kirk and Keke Coutee at the position. Despite the lack of production from the WR spot, Dave led the Ravens to an 8-4 mark and a playoff berth in the opening season. Dave decided to ride out a very quiet off-season, losing a few guys in RFA (all likely nothing more than replacement level guys) and taking his picks in the rookie draft. Headed to 2021 can Dave chase down the Steelers despite minimal moves, or will the team start to lose ground to Tennessee and Cleveland below them? A move that could affect how the Ravens do this season happened in the real life NFL with Jared Goff getting traded from the high flying Rams to the less than stellar Lions. Will the weapons downgrade for Goff end up hurting Dave this season, time will tell. Unlike QB, the RB group looks a stout one especially with Dalvin Cook in the fold. Add in another NFC lead back in David Montgomery it gives Dave a forceful duo at RB. Trey Sermon and Latavius Murray will be solid depth at the position, but Dave will already be looking to add to the spot with Justice Hill going down for the season. With Sutton back healthy for 2021, WR looks like it won’t be a liability this year, but Dave will hope Eskridge in Seattle, Kirk in Arizona, and Edwards in Las Vegas can all produce enough to keep this WR group from being a bottom third of the league type of unit this season. Hockenson looks set to be a very solid TE this season and should give Dave a reliable player on offense. Behind him is Harrison Bryant, who still has Hooper and NJoku on the roster, so production in year 2 for him will likely still be limited. Despite the clear holes on offense in 2020, the defense did its job and was what really helped Dave have a solid season. The team retains all the key guys and it starts at LB with Myles Jack, Blake Martinez, Rashaan Evans, and Khalil Mack, a very scary quartet indeed. The DB trio of Ronnie Harrison, Darnell Savage, and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson will be a solid group and certainly shouldn’t hurt the defense. With 5 guys on the roster, Dave has one the most DL rostered entering the season. That said 4 of the 5 will likely serve him well this season and those 4 are Jonathan Allen, Frank Clark, Jadeveon Clowney, and Brian Burns. The other guy there is AJ Epenesa, who enters his second year and is just behind some solid players in Buffalo, but will likely be a good player for the Ravens in the future. By finishing 2nd in the division in 2020, the Ravens will face off with the other 2nd place teams in the other 5 divisions and with that could gain some ground on the Steelers above them thanks to that. Can Dave and his Ravens do what I thought they would in 2020 and claim the division or continue chasing the Steelers or possibly the Titans this season?
Predicted Division Finish: 2nd
Cleveland Browns (Jim): 2020 Record: 4-8
I think the only place to start with this Browns team is with the sheer amount of owner turnover it has seen already in just under 18 months. There were 3 owners that got the team to the start of the season last year, then this off-season has also seen 3 different owners with 1 running it for the majority of the off-season including RFA and the rookie draft. Stefan did a fantastic job on this team in the rookie draft. With 7 picks it would be hard to mess a draft up and I think he successfully navigated it and will touch on that shortly. Jim has come in and helped put the finishing touches on the roster as we prep for the 2021 season. Will the roster overhaul lead the Browns to a playoff berth or is this team still in line for a top 5 pick this season? It was clear the previous owner was set on turning the offense around in the rookie draft and did so with 5 of the 7 rookie picks being on offense. None more prominent than their QB, Trevor Lawrence. The Browns were able to wait until pick 7 to get Lawrence. The RB room had a rookie added to it as well with the Browns taking Michael Carter in round 1. The vets on the roster in 2021 will be Mark Ingram and Boston Scott, so it will likely take Carter hitting year 1 or the starter in front of Ingram or Scott going down for the RB group to be a high end one. There were 2 rookies that got added to the Browns with Kadarius Toney and Tutu Atwell both joining the fold. They will be joined by Cole Beasley, Deonte Harris, and the Moore who has been selected by accident many times for his better namesake David Moore. With Tommy Tremble also getting drafted the Browns added a rookie to every position group on offense. Dallas Goedert looks set to finally be given the top spot at the TE spot in Philly and should be an easy top 10 option at the position now. Evan Engram makes this a very young group and one that looks to have some nice upside to it. The Browns will still need some work on defense, but Jim will have his pick of DL this season and be able to decide who he wants to build around as the team has a whopping 7 players at the position entering the season. The group will one again be led by Myles Garrett and he will have A’Shawn Robinson, Fletcher Cox, and Uchenna Nwosu backing him up. The team also added rookies Kwity Paye and Jaelan Phillips to the fold and both will likely be important pieces starting next season. Vita Vea rounds out the group. It might be a struggle at LB this season, but the team does have Shaq Barrett and Dont’a Hightower to stabilize the position. Behind them Lorenzo Carter and Joe Thomas are what will leave the team lacking something. The names at DB might be bigger than their actual fantasy output with Stephon Gilmore, Micah Hyde, and Rock Ya-Sin on the roster. Tre Flowers makes it 4 guys for Jim to play, but I will need to see those 4 put up consistent points early to say I have any faith in them in fantasy this season. Jim and his Browns might be able to climb the standings a bit this season thanks to being able to play the other bottom 4 finishing teams from across the league.
Predicted Division Finish: 4th
Pittsburgh Steelers (Malachi): 2020 Record: 10-2
By my own admission in last year’s write up, I thought my team was a year away at least from being a playoff/league contender. With a strong start and a few moves to add to the team lead the team to a 10-2 finish and the top seed in the AFC. Despite the strong run through the regular season, this Steelers team fell way short on playoff success as it was a loss in the first game for the team in the playoffs. Thanks to a loss to New England in the 2nd round the Steelers had a very short visit to the first ever LHL playoffs. The Steelers were certainly one of the more active teams in the off-season in terms of roster turnover as they went after a number of RFA players and even signed Mike Davis to help boost the RB position. A couple trades during the rookie draft also helped the team add 4 rookies to the team. As the team gears up to defend their division title and try to make a deeper playoff run this season, they will hope the moves they made this off-season were the right ones. We will start looking at offense for this team and on offense will highlight the RB group. It is a quartet of RBs for the Steelers that could give the team the best group of RBs in the league and it starts with Nick Chubb and Mike Davis, both set to be the lead guys on their teams. David Johnson and Carlos Hyde will help the top 2 be a very productive group, but both guys have other RBs on their real life team that will keep them from being on the level of Chubb and Davis. At QB, the Steelers will rock with Big Ben to open the season, but will likely move on to Justin Fields, their 1st round selection, once he takes the job in Chicago. The Steelers enter the season with potentially the top TE in fantasy, yes I know Kelce is still around, but Kittle is a monster in his own right. Anthony Firkser and Albert O provide some solid depth at the position. The position that might need some work this season is certainly WR as DeVante Parker and Diontae Johnson highlight the group, but the depth behind them will be questionable with MVS, Olamide Zaccheaus, and rookie Rondale Moore. Like 2020, LB will continue to be the marquee position on defense and a young one with all 6 guys on the roster being 25 or younger. Devin Bush, Cole Holcomb, and Willie Gay(when he returns) will lead the group with the Steelers hoping Zaire Franklin, Kyzir White, or Monty Rice break out this season to help the top 3. Arik Armstead, Trey Flowers, and Sebastian Joseph-Day could make for one of the top DL units in the league if they produce to the levels they are capable of, but could leave the Steelers in a hole if they don’t. With Keanu Neal moving to Dallas and potentially playing in more of a LB role, the DB unit could be a very solid one for the Steelers this season, but they will need Gipson, Jordan Whitehead, and rookie Jevon Holland all to produce to make that happen. A potential speed bump in the Steelers pursuit of another division crown could be their schedule as they square off with the 5 other division winners from last season.
Predicted Division Finish: 1st
Tennessee Titans (Nate): 2020 Record: 5-7
Looking back at 2020, I would think Nate isn’t totally disappointed with the results as the team went 5-7 and scored the 10th most points in the league, despite a handful of his guys not producing from either being out for a part or most of the season or just not being given the chance to do so. Both Saquon Barkley and Landon Collins missed significant time and it certainly cost the Titans a playoff spot. It was a pretty quiet off-season for the Titans as the only real roster moves Nate made was adding 3 rookies to his offense through the rookie draft. As Nate looks to make a leap up the standings this season he will not have to worry about QB as he has Josh Allen, who could reach the top spot at the position. Thanks to hitting on his pick of Antonio Gibson, Nate will have a very solid duo with Barkley back this season. The only depth behind them is currently Darrius Guice(not great) and rookie Khalil Herbert, so Nate could be in a dicey situation if Barkley or Gibson miss time this season. The Titans look to have a solid lead trio at WR with Calvin Ridley, Tee Higgins, and Sterling Shepard leading the way, the question will be can Andy Isabella, Dede Westbrook, or rookies Dyami Brown or Elijah Moore have break out seasons to add a 4th option to the group? The Titans have a very strong TE duo with Mark Andrews and Logan Thomas on the roster. With those 2, the Titans could wind up with the top TE unit in the league. Defense was a solid unit for the Titans in 2020, there were some holes on the unit that might cause some concerns this season. One spot that did not have any cause for concern was DL, thanks to a monstrous trio of Joey Bosa, JJ Watt, and Montez Sweat. All 3 will be back in 2021 and Matt Ioannidis will be there to provide some depth. There are 2 guys at LB that look like locks to be productive, Dre Greenlaw and Bobby Okereke, and two guys that likely will not be very productive, AJ Klein and David Mayo. So LB could use some upgrades entering the season for the Titans. Nate will roll into the season with 3 DBs on the roster, while not a great # for depth purposes, the 3 guys will be solid. The 3 I am talking about are Landon Collins, Adrian Amos, and Xavier Woods. As some may notice, Nate has an affinity for guys that play in Washington with 7 guys currently there and 2 more that are FAs, but played or were in Washington last. Will that reliance on one team leave Nate in a good spot this season, or wishing he had diversified more. This team looks poised to make a run at, at least a playoff berth this season and thanks to matching up with the other 3rd place finishing teams in the league will help him try to accomplish that.
Predicted Division Finish: 3rd
Baltimore Ravens (Dave): 2020 Record: 8-4
Headed into 2020, I fully believed the Ravens would be one of the top 2-3 teams in the AFC and be fighting with the Chargers to be the AFC representative in the LHL Super Bowl. That did not happen and Courtland Sutton going down week 1 did not help things for Dave at all as it blew up his WR core and left him relying on Christian Kirk and Keke Coutee at the position. Despite the lack of production from the WR spot, Dave led the Ravens to an 8-4 mark and a playoff berth in the opening season. Dave decided to ride out a very quiet off-season, losing a few guys in RFA (all likely nothing more than replacement level guys) and taking his picks in the rookie draft. Headed to 2021 can Dave chase down the Steelers despite minimal moves, or will the team start to lose ground to Tennessee and Cleveland below them? A move that could affect how the Ravens do this season happened in the real life NFL with Jared Goff getting traded from the high flying Rams to the less than stellar Lions. Will the weapons downgrade for Goff end up hurting Dave this season, time will tell. Unlike QB, the RB group looks a stout one especially with Dalvin Cook in the fold. Add in another NFC lead back in David Montgomery it gives Dave a forceful duo at RB. Trey Sermon and Latavius Murray will be solid depth at the position, but Dave will already be looking to add to the spot with Justice Hill going down for the season. With Sutton back healthy for 2021, WR looks like it won’t be a liability this year, but Dave will hope Eskridge in Seattle, Kirk in Arizona, and Edwards in Las Vegas can all produce enough to keep this WR group from being a bottom third of the league type of unit this season. Hockenson looks set to be a very solid TE this season and should give Dave a reliable player on offense. Behind him is Harrison Bryant, who still has Hooper and NJoku on the roster, so production in year 2 for him will likely still be limited. Despite the clear holes on offense in 2020, the defense did its job and was what really helped Dave have a solid season. The team retains all the key guys and it starts at LB with Myles Jack, Blake Martinez, Rashaan Evans, and Khalil Mack, a very scary quartet indeed. The DB trio of Ronnie Harrison, Darnell Savage, and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson will be a solid group and certainly shouldn’t hurt the defense. With 5 guys on the roster, Dave has one the most DL rostered entering the season. That said 4 of the 5 will likely serve him well this season and those 4 are Jonathan Allen, Frank Clark, Jadeveon Clowney, and Brian Burns. The other guy there is AJ Epenesa, who enters his second year and is just behind some solid players in Buffalo, but will likely be a good player for the Ravens in the future. By finishing 2nd in the division in 2020, the Ravens will face off with the other 2nd place teams in the other 5 divisions and with that could gain some ground on the Steelers above them thanks to that. Can Dave and his Ravens do what I thought they would in 2020 and claim the division or continue chasing the Steelers or possibly the Titans this season?
Predicted Division Finish: 2nd
Cleveland Browns (Jim): 2020 Record: 4-8
I think the only place to start with this Browns team is with the sheer amount of owner turnover it has seen already in just under 18 months. There were 3 owners that got the team to the start of the season last year, then this off-season has also seen 3 different owners with 1 running it for the majority of the off-season including RFA and the rookie draft. Stefan did a fantastic job on this team in the rookie draft. With 7 picks it would be hard to mess a draft up and I think he successfully navigated it and will touch on that shortly. Jim has come in and helped put the finishing touches on the roster as we prep for the 2021 season. Will the roster overhaul lead the Browns to a playoff berth or is this team still in line for a top 5 pick this season? It was clear the previous owner was set on turning the offense around in the rookie draft and did so with 5 of the 7 rookie picks being on offense. None more prominent than their QB, Trevor Lawrence. The Browns were able to wait until pick 7 to get Lawrence. The RB room had a rookie added to it as well with the Browns taking Michael Carter in round 1. The vets on the roster in 2021 will be Mark Ingram and Boston Scott, so it will likely take Carter hitting year 1 or the starter in front of Ingram or Scott going down for the RB group to be a high end one. There were 2 rookies that got added to the Browns with Kadarius Toney and Tutu Atwell both joining the fold. They will be joined by Cole Beasley, Deonte Harris, and the Moore who has been selected by accident many times for his better namesake David Moore. With Tommy Tremble also getting drafted the Browns added a rookie to every position group on offense. Dallas Goedert looks set to finally be given the top spot at the TE spot in Philly and should be an easy top 10 option at the position now. Evan Engram makes this a very young group and one that looks to have some nice upside to it. The Browns will still need some work on defense, but Jim will have his pick of DL this season and be able to decide who he wants to build around as the team has a whopping 7 players at the position entering the season. The group will one again be led by Myles Garrett and he will have A’Shawn Robinson, Fletcher Cox, and Uchenna Nwosu backing him up. The team also added rookies Kwity Paye and Jaelan Phillips to the fold and both will likely be important pieces starting next season. Vita Vea rounds out the group. It might be a struggle at LB this season, but the team does have Shaq Barrett and Dont’a Hightower to stabilize the position. Behind them Lorenzo Carter and Joe Thomas are what will leave the team lacking something. The names at DB might be bigger than their actual fantasy output with Stephon Gilmore, Micah Hyde, and Rock Ya-Sin on the roster. Tre Flowers makes it 4 guys for Jim to play, but I will need to see those 4 put up consistent points early to say I have any faith in them in fantasy this season. Jim and his Browns might be able to climb the standings a bit this season thanks to being able to play the other bottom 4 finishing teams from across the league.
Predicted Division Finish: 4th
Pittsburgh Steelers (Malachi): 2020 Record: 10-2
By my own admission in last year’s write up, I thought my team was a year away at least from being a playoff/league contender. With a strong start and a few moves to add to the team lead the team to a 10-2 finish and the top seed in the AFC. Despite the strong run through the regular season, this Steelers team fell way short on playoff success as it was a loss in the first game for the team in the playoffs. Thanks to a loss to New England in the 2nd round the Steelers had a very short visit to the first ever LHL playoffs. The Steelers were certainly one of the more active teams in the off-season in terms of roster turnover as they went after a number of RFA players and even signed Mike Davis to help boost the RB position. A couple trades during the rookie draft also helped the team add 4 rookies to the team. As the team gears up to defend their division title and try to make a deeper playoff run this season, they will hope the moves they made this off-season were the right ones. We will start looking at offense for this team and on offense will highlight the RB group. It is a quartet of RBs for the Steelers that could give the team the best group of RBs in the league and it starts with Nick Chubb and Mike Davis, both set to be the lead guys on their teams. David Johnson and Carlos Hyde will help the top 2 be a very productive group, but both guys have other RBs on their real life team that will keep them from being on the level of Chubb and Davis. At QB, the Steelers will rock with Big Ben to open the season, but will likely move on to Justin Fields, their 1st round selection, once he takes the job in Chicago. The Steelers enter the season with potentially the top TE in fantasy, yes I know Kelce is still around, but Kittle is a monster in his own right. Anthony Firkser and Albert O provide some solid depth at the position. The position that might need some work this season is certainly WR as DeVante Parker and Diontae Johnson highlight the group, but the depth behind them will be questionable with MVS, Olamide Zaccheaus, and rookie Rondale Moore. Like 2020, LB will continue to be the marquee position on defense and a young one with all 6 guys on the roster being 25 or younger. Devin Bush, Cole Holcomb, and Willie Gay(when he returns) will lead the group with the Steelers hoping Zaire Franklin, Kyzir White, or Monty Rice break out this season to help the top 3. Arik Armstead, Trey Flowers, and Sebastian Joseph-Day could make for one of the top DL units in the league if they produce to the levels they are capable of, but could leave the Steelers in a hole if they don’t. With Keanu Neal moving to Dallas and potentially playing in more of a LB role, the DB unit could be a very solid one for the Steelers this season, but they will need Gipson, Jordan Whitehead, and rookie Jevon Holland all to produce to make that happen. A potential speed bump in the Steelers pursuit of another division crown could be their schedule as they square off with the 5 other division winners from last season.
Predicted Division Finish: 1st
Tennessee Titans (Nate): 2020 Record: 5-7
Looking back at 2020, I would think Nate isn’t totally disappointed with the results as the team went 5-7 and scored the 10th most points in the league, despite a handful of his guys not producing from either being out for a part or most of the season or just not being given the chance to do so. Both Saquon Barkley and Landon Collins missed significant time and it certainly cost the Titans a playoff spot. It was a pretty quiet off-season for the Titans as the only real roster moves Nate made was adding 3 rookies to his offense through the rookie draft. As Nate looks to make a leap up the standings this season he will not have to worry about QB as he has Josh Allen, who could reach the top spot at the position. Thanks to hitting on his pick of Antonio Gibson, Nate will have a very solid duo with Barkley back this season. The only depth behind them is currently Darrius Guice(not great) and rookie Khalil Herbert, so Nate could be in a dicey situation if Barkley or Gibson miss time this season. The Titans look to have a solid lead trio at WR with Calvin Ridley, Tee Higgins, and Sterling Shepard leading the way, the question will be can Andy Isabella, Dede Westbrook, or rookies Dyami Brown or Elijah Moore have break out seasons to add a 4th option to the group? The Titans have a very strong TE duo with Mark Andrews and Logan Thomas on the roster. With those 2, the Titans could wind up with the top TE unit in the league. Defense was a solid unit for the Titans in 2020, there were some holes on the unit that might cause some concerns this season. One spot that did not have any cause for concern was DL, thanks to a monstrous trio of Joey Bosa, JJ Watt, and Montez Sweat. All 3 will be back in 2021 and Matt Ioannidis will be there to provide some depth. There are 2 guys at LB that look like locks to be productive, Dre Greenlaw and Bobby Okereke, and two guys that likely will not be very productive, AJ Klein and David Mayo. So LB could use some upgrades entering the season for the Titans. Nate will roll into the season with 3 DBs on the roster, while not a great # for depth purposes, the 3 guys will be solid. The 3 I am talking about are Landon Collins, Adrian Amos, and Xavier Woods. As some may notice, Nate has an affinity for guys that play in Washington with 7 guys currently there and 2 more that are FAs, but played or were in Washington last. Will that reliance on one team leave Nate in a good spot this season, or wishing he had diversified more. This team looks poised to make a run at, at least a playoff berth this season and thanks to matching up with the other 3rd place finishing teams in the league will help him try to accomplish that.
Predicted Division Finish: 3rd
