{"id":25172,"date":"2024-08-12T16:55:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T20:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=25172"},"modified":"2024-08-12T16:55:26","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T20:55:26","slug":"ravens-look-to-repeat-in-tough-afc-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/ravens-look-to-repeat-in-tough-afc-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravens Look to Repeat in Tough AFC North"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It is the toughest and roughest division in football and despite having a couple of elite teams, the<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AFC North could be won by any of the four teams. Can Baltimore continue its recent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>dominance or can the Bengals return to the king of the division? We\u2019ll break down those two<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>favorites, but also see if there is any value with Cleveland or Pittsburgh in one of the most<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>competitive divisions in the NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Baltimore Ravens +140<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ravens had the best record in football last season but stumbled in the playoffs, yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They do have one of the most balanced rosters in the league and added running back Derrick<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Henry to complement reigning MVP Lamar Jackson in the backfield. Baltimore were at, or near<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the top of many categories but there are some questions on defense. The Ravens lost<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>defensive coordinator, Mike Macdonald, who is the Seahawks new head coach. Patrick Queen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>signed with Pittsburgh and Jadeveon Clowney went to Carolina. Cornerback Ronald Darby and<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>safety Geno Stone also left. Repeating a 13 win season will be difficult especially playing six<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>tough divisional games. There could be better value elsewhere in the competitive AFC North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cincinnati Bengals +165<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bengals lost Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd but brought in Zack Moss. Offensively, Ja\u2019Marr<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chase is their biggest weapon and with Joe Burrow healthy again, that dynamic duo will look to<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>regain their form from a few years ago. The outlook for the offensive line isn\u2019t promising,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>especially against this rugged division. They are not as experienced and were lucky last year,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>health wise, as all five starters played all 17 games. Defensively, Cincinnati struggled last<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>season, sixth worst in the NFL against the run. Couple things to consider, the Bengals do have<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>an easier schedule but also have an unhappy Tee Higgins, and a quarterback who still could<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>have lingering wrist issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cleveland Browns +500<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Browns went into last year\u2019s playoffs with a stout defense but were absolutely torched by<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the Texans in a 45-14 loss. Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett leads a unit that should<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>still be a force next season as it was ranked #2 overall in 2023. Cleveland added Jerry Jeudy to<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a receiving core that includes Amari Cooper and tight end David Njoku. But for this team to<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>succeed, two players need to return to form, quarterback Deshaun Watson and running back<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nick Chubb. Cleveland needs a healthy Nick Chubb to have any chance to make a run at the<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pittsburgh Steelers +600<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Steelers were 10-7 despite having Kenny PIckett as their quarterback. Now they have two<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>proven pivots in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Workhorse Najee Harris will be a big part of<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the offense and George Pickens now has a quarterback who can make use of his big body<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>presence. His average of almost 11 yards per target is one of the highest in the NFL. The<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>difference maker for Pittsburgh is Mike Tomlin. He can always strategize a game plan to beat<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>any team on any day. The Steelers defense is always tough and finished sixth last season. The<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>first half of the season is a favorable schedule and if they can get a great start, they could upset<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>this division and at these odds, it wouldn\u2019t be a bad bet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AFC North Division Odds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baltimore Ravens +140<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cincinnati Bengals +165<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cleveland Browns +500<br>Pittsburgh Steelers +600<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is the toughest and roughest division in football and despite having a couple of elite teams, the AFC North&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":23959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-25172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25173,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25172\/revisions\/25173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}