Bengals, Steelers, Browns, Ravens: AFC North fans preview the 2022 NFL season

In the first of our fan preview articles, we delve into the home of the AFC Champions and to a division that in the past couple of years as never been easy to predict who was going to come out of it as champion.

Quarterbacks are the most important player in the sport, but when it comes to order and stability at the position, the AFC North has had something of a rough time this offseason.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a pretty fierce competition between Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky, the Baltimore Ravens can’t get Lamar Jackson’s contract sorted out, the Cleveland Browns have had to deal with Deshaun Watson’s off-field issues, whilst the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow had a few health problems to deal with.

But what do the fans make of the state of their teams and how do they think it will play out? We reached out to a number of fans from all teams in the AFC North and asked them their views on their respective franchises, asking five of the same questions to each responder before giving them one unique question each, after which we will reveal our prediction for how the division will look come the end of the regular season.

What went well for you last season?

Everything. For the past few seasons we’ve been blighted by injuries to key players, but last season injuries were miraculously kept to a minimum. This was crucial to building continuity and momentum, and the players benefitted. One of them was Joe Burrow, whose progress throughout the season was emblematic of the whole team – inconsistent in the early going and then, as things developed, kicking the door down and getting into an unstoppable groove. The aforementioned Burrow was just outstanding; calm under pressure, supremely confident and cut-throat