The King's Declaration AFC North

by KingJohnIX | 4 years ago | 0 Comments

King’s Declaration AFC North We are now nearly half way through season 66 and it is time to look at how this year's rookies are impacting the teams that selected them. Every year teams are looking to pull themselves out of the holes they have dug themselves into. Others are looking to put themselves over the hump and make the playoffs and then there are the teams looking for that final piece to make that Super Bowl run. Who accomplished their goals and who is stuck in neutral? AFC North Cincinnati Bengals Players Drafted: #5 Chris Butler CB #56 Darryl Cook DE #66 Demarcus Brown DT The Bengals are coming off a tough year and decided to make defense their priority as they didn’t draft a single offensive player in the first 3 rounds. Maybe they should have as the offense is struggling to put points on the board. They are currently only scoring 19 points a game through their first 8 games. Yards aren’t the problem they are a top 12 offense in the game. Over 315 yards a game with 228 passing yards and 87 rushing yards a game. They just have to take care of the ball inside the 40 as they are sitting with 14 interceptions with a few of those coming inside the 20. Now for the meat and potatoes of this team’s draft, the defense. Going all defense in the early round had to have a positive impact on this team right? Well you would be laughable wrong about that my good friend. Giving up 29 points a game, bottom 5. Nearly 400 yards a game, omg are you serious ranked 32. 284 passing yards and 111 rushing yards every game 32nd and 31st respectively. Umm this is not good. So lets go find some positives with this rookie that were drafted. Chris Butler seems to be playing well totaling 22 tackles and 1 int. Unfortunately we don’t have the stats of yards allowed for him but seeing as they allow nearly 300 a game. Probably not great. But not a bad start for the rook. Darryl Cook and Demarcus Brown find themselves as non starters so far this season and have tallied up a total of 8 combined tackles. So far this draft class seems underwhelming but its early things can go up. Season Prediction: 2-14 Cleveland Browns Players Drafted: #28 Brannon McGraw TE #38 Curtis Whitmore FB #49 Isaiah Waynes WR Going to the complete opposite of the Bengals the Browns “loaded” up on offensive talent in the draft. Pairing this young guys with players like Baker and Chubb surely they are off to a hot start. Well they are blazing down another under .500 season path. Scoring a measly 22 points a game and totalling 341 yards a game both bottom 10 the only bright side is this run game. Putting up nearly 110 yards every game. Time to check out if these rookies are making a difference or not. First round TE McGraw is having a solid campaign putting up over 200 yards on 19 catches and adding 1 touchdown. 2nd round Waynes is putting up goose eggs across the board and same with Whitmore but at least he is leading the way for Chubb in the run game. This offense will need to step it up if they hope to make a run at the playoffs. Not addressing the defense in the draft could be an issue for this team down the road. They are currently allowing 33 points a game currently ranked 31st however the rest of the defense isn’t quite as bad. Allowing 374 yards a game is good enough for the middle of the pack. The pass defense is in the top 12 allowing only 254 yards a game. They just need someone to step up and help slow down the scoring and they may be able to turn this around. Season Prediction: 5-11 Baltimore Ravens Drafted Players: # 17 Max Walters #95 CB Nick Stamer With so few picks in the top 3 rounds the Ravens had to make sure they hit on both of them. In the first round they drafted a mountain of a center in Max Walters. Standing 6’4 weighing 311 pounds at the age of 21 he is looking to make his mark on the league. He is a great young cornerstone to build around on the offensive line. He may need to try to step up and be a vocal on this offense to give them some motivation as they currently rank in the bottom half of the league only scoring 17 points a game. We will see if they improve. The defensive is so talented Stamer has yet to see the field. I don’t hate this move as he may just be a project DB for this team. But they also made some trades this year to sure up this defense. However, it does not seem to be helping. They are giving up 29 points a game and nearly 350 yards every game. The only bright spot on this defense is the passing defense as they are only giving up 220 yards a game good enough for 12th in the league. A few adjustments here or there and this team could right itself. Season Prediction: 7-9 Pittsburgh Steelers Drafted Players: #40 Nolan McCrary LB #58 Travis Moore WR #60 Max Rodriguez CB #92 Landon Diggs WR Coming off a division title, and letting JuJu go last season the Steelers saw fit to draft 2 young WRs. As they are making some contributions; Moore totalling a stat line of 24-262-2 and Diggs posting a 6-80-1. That is not too shabby for a couple rookies. However, this offense needs a lot of work as they are currently in the bottom half of every category. 26 points a game-18th, 333 yards a game-24th, 230 passing yards-26th and 103 rushing yards good enough for 19th. Even sitting at 5-1 it is obvious that the offense is the weak point of the team. If they want to make a playoff run they will need to get it together. For the other half of their picks the Steel Curtain focused on that defense. Adding a much needed Lb and some depth to the secondary we have to see if it is paying off. The defense is playing lights so far this season. Allowing a measly 15 points a game. Only 241 total yards, 181 passing yards and 60 rushing yards all good enough for 1st in the league. But does this have anything to do with the rookies. Rookie LB McCrary is currently 3rd on the team with 22 tackles and adds 1 int. A really good start for a rookie on this defense. CB Max finds himself on the practice squad due to the depth of this position. Its safe to say this team is only going as far as the defense will carry them. Season Prediction: 10-6