On the heels of a rough preseason performance against the Buffalo Bills, Colin Cowherd is all-out on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Making his division standings and playoff predictions Wednesday morning, Cowherd picked the Steelers to finish third in the AFC North and be sitting on the couch come Wild Card weekend.
“AFC North, I don’t know if there’s a great team,” Cowherd said. “I’m out on the Steelers. Browns’ ownership quarterback scares me. It’s Ravens/Bengals. I may revisit this. Lamar Jackson’s health, I trust him to be healthy by Week 17, even though he’s had injuries more than Joe Burrow. But if Joe Burrow is upright for the entire season, Cincinnati may win this division.”
While Cowherd didn’t rank the entire division in his overview, the graphic that accompanied it and shown above, has the Baltimore Ravens winning the North for a second-straight year with the Cincinnati Bengals right behind. Pittsburgh is third, only ahead of the last-place Cleveland Browns.
Cowherd played his greatest hits Monday, criticizing Mike Tomlin for not investing enough to build up the Steelers’ offense. A group that has struggled the past three seasons bottomed out to become one of football’s worst a year ago until QB Mason Rudolph provided a late spark.
The AFC North is viewed as the NFL’s toughest division. Last year, all four teams finished above .500, a testament to their coaching staffs and defenses considering only Baltimore kept the same starting quarterback throughout the year. Cincinnati lost Joe Burrow, Cleveland Deshaun Watson, and Pittsburgh lost (and then got rid of) Kenny Pickett. The Bengals and Browns return their starters while the Steelers have upgraded their unit.
Fortunately, the Steelers consistently do well against the AFC North. Last season, they went 5-1 against the division and as we pointed out, Pittsburgh holds the longest streak at or above .500 against their foes. The 2009 season was the last time the Steelers finished below .500 against the North. They’ll need to keep that streak going this year, one made more difficult by playing all six of their divisional games over the final eight weeks. That includes a four-week stretch of playing nothing but the division: Baltimore in Week 11, Cleveland in Week 12, Cincinnati in Week 13, and Cleveland again in Week 14.
From the North, Cowherd picked the Bengals to capture one of the three Wild Card spots, joining the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins.
