AFC North projections: Where the Baltimore Ravens finish
The Baltimore Ravens are favored to repeat as AFC North champions, and barring major injury should do so.
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Sometimes it's easy to forget entering the 2019-20 NFL postseason that the Baltimore Ravens and not the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs were the team to beat in the AFC. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, not Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes, had the MVP season. Jackson set an NFL single-season rushing record for a quarterback – the Ravens had the highest-ever rushing yardage total for a team – and led the league in touchdown passes.
Baltimore also had the NFL's No. 3 scoring defense (17.6 ppg) and No. 4 total defense (300.6 ypg). The Ravens won a franchise-record 14 regular-season games and their final 12, also a team record. Jim Harbaugh's team even caught a big break in the Wild-Card Round when No. 6 Tennessee went to New England and upset Tom Brady's Patriots.
Of course, we all know what happened in the Divisional Round: Tennessee, as a 10-point underdog, went to M&T Bank Stadium and stunned the Ravens 28-12 on the back of Derrick Henry. The Titans had just 83 yards passing. Jackson admitted this offseason that the Ravens may have overlooked the Titans toward a home AFC title game vs. the Chiefs.
Ravens SportsLine Projection Model Forecast/William Hill Odds
Most offseason, it seems like Baltimore loses more talent than it gains because the team churns out so many good players that they get plucked away in free agency. That wasn't really the case this offseason, though, as the biggest loss was probably nose tackle Michael Pierce. Baltimore slapped the franchise tag on linebacker and leading sacker Matthew Judon plus traded for stellar Jaguars defensive end Calais Campbell and then extended him. All it cost was a fifth-round pick!
Campbell is one of four players with at least 80 sacks and 30 batted passes over the past 10 seasons, while the Ravens' defensive linemen totaled four sacks in 2019, the fewest by any team. The Ravens also added former Broncos end Derek Wolfe, who had career-high 7.0 sacks last year.
In the draft, the Ravens might have gotten two major steals in LSU linebacker Patrick Queen at No. 28 overall and Ohio State running back JK Dobbins at No. 55. Queen will start from Day 1 in the middle and is +1100 to win NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Dobbins is +2000 to win Offensive Rookie of the Year and while he may not get a ton of touches this year, he's the long-term replacement for Mark Ingram.
If there's one potential issue on the team, it's at receiver, but the club has been linked to both Dez Bryant and Antonio Brown as of this writing. Baltimore projects to be the only team in the NFL to be favored in every regular-season game. It is -8.5 on the NFL odds for Week 1 at home vs. Cleveland.
NFL Pick: Ravens go 11-5 and win the North again.
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