With Three Teams above 500 in the AFC North, is it the best division in football?

by Derek Brown, Staff Writer

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

The official NFL logo shines on an NFL turf field. Photo by Hence The Boom.

Going into the 2020-2021 NFL season there were a lot of expectations and anticipation for a great season and so far it has been nothing but great. One of the biggest surprises of the season is how well the Cleveland Browns are doing as they hold a superb record of 9 wins and only 4 losses. There have been a ton of surprises this season, but which ones have been as huge as the browns starting 9-4?

As the season has gone along, one thing that has turned a lot of heads is how good the AFC North has been, which holds the Browns, Steelers, Ravens and the Bengals. Three out of four teams have at least 8 wins and all of them are in playoff contention at the moment. This is probably the biggest surprise this season so far and The Jaguar Times was curious to see what some students thought. Cameron Ridolfo (12) said , “The Browns have definitely shocked me the most. For the last couple of years have had a talented roster but haven’t been able to put it quite together so I just assumed they wouldn’t be able to this year either but now they have the right coach and pieces necessary to win.” He also talked about who he thinks the most dangerous team will be, “I think the most dangerous team will be the Steelers in the playoffs and will go the furthest just because they have a chance to get a first round bye and with their defense they can be scary to deal with come playoff time.” He finally talked about who he thought who the best team is, “I think overall the Steelers are still the best team. All around they fill out all the categories that are needed for a good team.” The Jaguar Times asked another student to see what he thought about this. David Lamb (12) said, “I believe that the browns are the best because their run game is unstoppable and they have the most momentum because they have never been this good in so many years.” He also said which team is the biggest surprise, “I think the Steelers being over 500 is a huge surprise for me because the Steelers are honestly not that good and just got lucky with an easy schedule.” The Jaguar Times also asked who he thought is going to go farthest in the playoffs, “The Browns will go the farthest in the playoffs because the first reason is the Ravens won’t even make it and the second reason is that the Steelers will lose in their first game because they have absolutely no run game. The Browns are going to dominate the trenches against whichever team they play, plus Baker Mayfield will get hot and set the league on fire.”

Overall, people had different opinions on which teams are better in the division. They had some really interesting opinions because one student thought that one team was better and the other student thought a different team was better than the other. This division has been very tough for several years now and The Jaguar Times is looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season ends up for each team and how far they each go in the playoffs!