AFC North Threatens CHANGE at the TOP in 2025

By Dan Salem

Posted on July 16, 2025

Will the Bengals FINALLY give Baltimore a true challenge for the AFC North division title? Defense wins championships after all.

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Most NFL divisions are balanced, with a good team, a bad team and two competitive up and comers. Some are top heavy, while others are chock full of dump at the bottom. Where does your favorite division fall in 2025? We answer the most interesting questions about each division heading into the new season.

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Which team(s) has quarterback issues? What coach is on the hot seat, or is there more than one? Who’s the division favorite? How about a dark horse to take the title? Who will be in last place? Finally, the real question and the only one that matters. How many Super Bowl contenders does your division have? We enter the AFC North, where change is knocking on the door.

NFC Division Previews: NFC East, NFC North, NFC South, NFC West
AFC Division Previews: AFC East, AFC North, AFC South, AFC West

AFC North 2025 Preview

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Quarterback Battles:

Baltimore/Cincinnati/Pitsburgh – None
Cleveland Browns – THE Battle (Todd Salem) – No other team in the league has a position battle brewing like the Cleveland Browns. Count ’em, five quarterbacks in the room, four of whom think they can be the starter (Deshaun Watson is injured). Three must think they are entitled to the best shot: Joe Flacco is the experienced veteran; Kenny Pickett is the acquired trade piece that they paid up for; Dillon Gabriel is the (relatively) highly drafted prospect.

And beyond all that, perhaps the best of them all could be Shedeur Sanders, the storyline, the supposed malcontent, the prospect who nobody wanted.

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Cleveland Browns – Last Man Standing (Dan Salem) – NFL teams DO NOT enter the season with four quarterbacks, let alone five. What are the Browns to do? They can’t jettison the two rookies they just drafted. It would be foolish to cast aside Joe Flacco, but then they just paid Pickett so that would also be foolish. Watson is hurt, so that helps things a bit. Someone is going to win the starting job and Cleveland is going to make a foolish decision, because they are not carrying five QBs into week one. If they do, well then see below for the Hot Seat.

Hot Seat Coach:

Baltimore/Cincinnati – None
Cleveland Browns – Just Because (Todd) ; Waiting for a Match to Light the Fire (Dan)

Todd Salem: Kevin Stefanski is a good coach. Most people agree about that. He’s a two-time winner of AP Coach of the Year for god’s sake! And yet, this team is clearly in complete freefall thanks to its QB situation. The roster around quarterback used to be stellar, and that has fallen off as well. This could be a case of everyone agreeing it wasn’t the coach’s fault, and yet the coach being cast off anyway in favor of change for the sake of change.

Dan Salem: The quarterback situation will either lift Stefanski up to the ranks of “damn he’s good”, or sink him completely to the point of being fired from a team that doesn’t deserve to have him as coach. It’s hard to win coach of the year, let alone twice. But you know what’s harder, getting fired after doing so. The only thing that can make this situation worse for him is a healthy Watson in the QB room.

Pittsburgh Steelers – First Time For Everything (Todd Salem) – We know the stat about this franchise having only three head coaches since the 1960s. How many more seasons will just being mediocre be enough for Pittsburgh ownership though? Everyone prides Mike Tomlin as always getting to that .500 mark, but how about we do a bit better than that? 2020 has been the only season in the past seven where the Steelers topped 10 wins and/or won the division.

I actually don’t think Pitt should put Tomlin on the hot seat. I think he’s done a masterful job, and the roster, specifically on offense, has been lacking in recent years. But he has done a poor job of hiring coordinators in recent years, and the offense is going to be lacking again in 2025. I think the noise will start to build against him, if it hasn’t already.

Division Favorite:

Baltimore Ravens – Todd Salem: Elite quarterback flanked by elite skill players and offensive line, buttressed by elite defense and coaching staff. Where is the flaw? Kicker, now that the Justin Tucker era is over? In the playoffs, this team has some humps to traverse, but getting to the playoffs as a division winner has never been a problem.

Baltimore Ravens – Dan Salem: There has been only one team in the AFC North for quite some time, despite the Bengals efforts to make noise once in a while. Baltimore is best and Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh isn’t going to change that. A competent defense in Cincinnati won’t change it either. The Ravens are the favorites and should easily win twelve games and the division title.

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Dark Horse:

Cincinnati Bengals (Todd Salem) – The offense is a no-brainer. This could be the best offense in the league, barring health. Does that mean they are too ‘known’ to be a dark horse? I could buy that argument; I also don’t see another contender in this division.

On the other side of the ball, Cincy has work to do. Trey Hendrickson is their only blue-chipper. The team did bring in a new defensive coordinator and used their first two picks on front seven guys. It remains to be seen if those changes will be enough to buoy this unit into contender status.

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Cincinnati Bengals (Dan Salem) – They are the dark horse by default, because I don’t believe the Steelers will be any better than the 9 or 10 wins they average per season. That said, Cincinnati has a lot of improving to do if they hope to catch Baltimore and actually win the AFC North. It will be challenging to have such a great offense once again, but lucky for them it should be equally as challenging to be as piss poor on defense. It’s unlikely the Bengals are better than Baltimore, but it could happen, so they are the dark horse.

Last Place Team:

Cleveland Browns (Todd Salem) – When just the QB was terrible in previous seasons, we speculated whether the rest of the roster was good enough to overcome that. Now, with steps back across the offensive line, skill positions, and defense, it isn’t even a question. The worst QB room in the league is paired with a lackluster roster. The best things about this team are Myles Garrett and maybe a deep tight end room? Even hopeful rookie star Quinshon Judkins has already been arrested.

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Cleveland Browns (Dan Salem) – They are last place by default, because even if Aaron Rodgers gets hurt or is bad, I don’t see Pittsburgh losing more than the Browns. Cleveland may be spunky if they figure out which quarterback has the right stuff, but this is a six win team at best. Good luck not sucking.

Number of Super Bowl Contenders:

Two – Todd Salem: Baltimore is obvious; Cincinnati is less clear. The offense is championship-caliber, but is the team as a whole? It’s a borderline argument, but one I’m in favor of making. If this is indeed a top-five offense, all they would need is a league-average defense to compete. With the talent brought in and changes made on the coaching staff, I think enough decks have been shuffled to give them that chance.

One – Dan Salem: I just don’t see Cincinnati getting it all together like they did several long years ago, so Baltimore is the lone contender in my mind. That said, I’d be shocked if the Bengals are not a serious wildcard contender. They could even win a playoff game, but they are not elite and only elite teams are Super Bowl contenders. The Ravens are elite.

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Meet our Sports Writers:

Dan Salem is Lead Editor and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X, TikTok and Instagram. His latest film ‘Alone’ is now on Amazon.

Todd Salem is a Staff Writer and Contributing Editor at BuzzChomp. He’s also a champion of fantasy football and fantasy baseball, dominating leagues for over two decades. Comment below on his unfiltered opinions.

AFC North Preview – This Is The End

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