AFC North 2015 Off-season Changes

Cincinnati Bengals:

The Bengals were solid enough on offense and defense to not have too many areas of focus other than injuries and QB Andy Dalton’s performance in the playoffs. They chose to look to their future and to keep their running game intact and Dalton upright by drafting a pair of offensive linemen with their first 2 picks. OT Cedric Ogbuehi from Texas A&M will be a cornerstone for years to come though he will be worked in slowly later this season since he is coming off an ACL tear. OT Jake Fisher from Oregon will make more of an immediate impact this season.

This team drafts tight ends like the Raiders do wide receivers. This year’s draft further solidified that trait with TE Tyler Kroft from Rutgers in the 3rd round and C.J. Uzomah from Auburn in the 5th round. They still have former 1st round pick TE Tyler Eifert on the roster but he had a poor injury-plagued 2014 campaign and they need some production from this position in 2015. Kroft will get the first shot in that spot.

Fantasy starters: RB Jeremy Hill, WR A.J. Green, Cincy D
Fantasy bench: QB Andy Dalton, RB Giovani Bernard, WR Mohamed Sanu
Fantasy Sleeper: TE Tyler Kroft

Pittsburgh Steelers:

The Steelers have focused more on offense in recent years versus shoring up their aging defense and it caught up with them. Following the “better late than never” adage, they focused on that unit in this year’s draft. They picked up LB Bud Dupree in the first round out of Kentucky. Projected to go much higher, Dupree looks like a steal at the 22nd pick. He runs a 4.56 40-yard dash and has a 42 inch vertical and will make an immediate impact on the outside. With their second pick, they addressed a glaring need at corner with fellow SEC grad CB Senquez Golson from Ole Miss and added Ohio St CB Doran Grant in the 4th round.

The offense didn’t need much help but they did add a little depth by adding RB DeAngelo Williams in free agency from Carolina and drafted WR Sammie Coates from Auburn. Coates is an intriguing prospect but joins multiple WRs that have similar skills, which is a bit strange unless they plan on moving one of them via trade.

Fantasy starters: QB Ben Roethlisberger, RB La’Veon Bell, WR Antonio Brown
Fantasy bench: WR Martavis Bryant, WR Markus Wheaton, TE Heath Miller, Pitt D
Fantasy Sleeper: WR Sammie Coates

Baltimore Ravens:

The Ravens surprised on defense last season but were inconsistent on offense. They strengthened their offense in hopes of providing some consistency and added a bit of defense to replace a few defections. After losing Torrey Smith in free agency, the Ravens had to get a top WR somehow. They chose to do it in the draft. In another deep draft of wide receivers, they grabbed Breshad Perriman from Central Florida. He fell into the Ravens’ lap at the 26th pick of the 1st round and they were kicking their heels when they turned his name in as their pick. He is big and has amazing speed (4.29 in the 40-yard dash). He is the type of receiver that QB Joe Flacco NEEDS and the Ravens need to help open the middle of the field. In that middle of the field, Steve Smith Jr should have another productive year. The Ravens normally are solid at TE but all they had at that position going into the draft was TE Dennis Pitta, who is coming off of injury-plagued back-to-back years. They solved this problem by drafting the top-ranked TE Max Williams from Minnesota in the 2nd round.

To patch defensive line holes, the Ravens were able to get DT Carl Davis from Iowa in the 3rd round and DE Za’Darius Smith from Kentucky in the 4th round. One item for the fantasy community to note is that the Ravens did add RB Buck Allen from USC in the 4th round. They did catch lightning-in-a-bottle last season with Justin Forsett, but he is not a true pass-catching back and Allen could easily see running and pass-catching action right away this season.

Fantasy starters: QB Joe Flacco, RB Justin Forsett, WR Breshad Perriman
Fantasy bench: WR Steve Smith Jr, Baltimore D
Fantasy Sleeper: TE Max Williams, RB Javorius “Buck” Allen

Cleveland Browns:

Somehow the Browns excelled in the first half of the 2014 season before they played back down to their talent level. Their offense was far too inept for them to actually vie for a playoff spot and was definitely their focus in the off-season. Too bad they have a clueless front office. They replaced mediocre QB Brian Hoyer with mediocre QB Josh McCown. I expect to see him fail this season, as he did in Tampa last season, followed by Johnny Manziel proving that he is a complete NFL Bust and them finding out that Connor Shaw is their best QB on the team and possibility their QB of the Future. I still think RB Terrance West is their best RB but they drafted Duke Johnson from Miami in the 3rd round to add to the mix with Isiah Crowell and repeating the lead RB confusion of 2014.

The Browns lined up the worst starting receiving corps since the scabs played during the NFL strike in 1987. While it is virtually impossible not to improve that unit, they did not do it convincingly with their free agent signings of Dwayne Bowe and Brian Hartline. With back-to-back crops of amazing wide receivers available in the NFL draft, it is inconceivable that an NFL team could have this poor of a unit. It is so bad that 4th round pick Vince Mayle could easily crack the starting lineup in no time.

The defense is by far the better of the two units on the Browns and did actually get a little better with the addition of DT Danny Shelton from Washington. However, if the defense doesn’t outscore the opposing offense, I am not sure how they will win many games this year.

Fantasy starters: Not a soul
Fantasy bench: WR Dwayne Bowe, RB Isaiah Crowell, RB Terrance West
Fantasy Sleeper: RB Duke Johnson