You'll hear NFL teams talk a lot about winning their division as the first goal for their season.
The reason? The surest way to get into the playoffs is to win a division title, and it assures a home playoff game.
But to win that division title, teams should be as good as — if not better than — division opponents in a number of areas. That won't guarantee success, but it sure will help.
We continue our look at how the Steelers stack up against their AFC North opponents on a position-by-position basis.
Today, we look at wide receivers:
It's tough to truly judge the season the Steelers' receivers had last season, as the team's passing yardage total fell from 5,008 in 2018 to 2,981 last season, the largest single-season drop in NFL history.
That's what happens when you lose a franchise quarterback and then have to have two different quarterbacks make their NFL debuts in the same season.
But the overall youth of the team's wide receiver group was a part of those struggles, as well. The addition of veteran receiver Donte Moncrief was supposed to help ease that, but he suffered a broken finger in training camp that affected him early in the season and he never recovered, earning his release later in the season.
That allowed James Washington and rookie Diontae Johnson to have more playing time opposite JuJu Smith-Schuster, who struggled through an injury-plagued season.
When the Browns made a trade last offseason to acquire Odell Beckham to pair with Jarvis Landry, it was assumed to be the missing piece to their offense -- at least in Cleveland. A championship was a forgone conclusion.
But Beckham struggled to connect with quarterback Baker Mayfield in his first season in Cleveland, catching 74 passes for 1,035 yards and four touchdowns. Landry, meanwhile, caught 83 passes for 1,174 yards and six scores.
Landry had offseason hip surgery, and while he says he'll be ready for the start of the season, that remains to be seen.
The Bengals, meanwhile, were without top receiver A.J. Green all season, making former Pitt star Tyler Boyd their No. 1 target. He finished with the most catches in the division, with 90 for 1,046 yards and five scores. Unheralded Auden Tate and former first-round pick John Ross also helped to fill that void. They also added talented Tee Higgins with the first pick in the second round of the draft this year.
The Ravens largely went with a rookie starting duo of Marquise Brown and Miles Boykin in 2019 and figure to use that same tandem this season -- when they're healthy. Brown missed two games and parts of others with various injuries, something that dogged him in college. The duo also produced just 59 combined catches, the same total Johnson had for the Steelers to lead all rookie receivers.
WIDE RECEIVER UNIT RANKINGS
- Bengals -- Green, Boyd, Higgins, Tate, Ross, Alex Erickson
- Browns -- Beckham, Landry, Rashard Higgins, Taywan Taylor, KhaDarel Hodge
- Steelers -- Smith-Schuster, Johnson, Washington, Chase Claypool, Deon Cain
- Ravens -- Brown, Boykin, Willie Snead, Jaleel Scott, Devin Duvernay
If Green returns healthy this season, the Bengals might have the deepest group of wide receivers in the NFL with the addition of Higgins. It's a pretty good group and that depth is better than the Browns have, with their star power at the top two positions. The Browns really don't have any depth behind Beckham and Landry. Higgins is OK, but has been exposed in the past when forced to play too much. The Steelers need Smith-Schuster to bounce back this season, but Johnson and Washington both emerged as solid players in 2019. Claypool and Cain both provide big, fast targets. Brown is talented, but the Ravens lean more on their tight ends than they do their receivers when throwing the ball. But the Ravens are by far the weakest at wide receiver in the division. The top three groups are all in the upper half of the league in terms of overall talent. The Ravens are closer to the bottom of the league than they are to the Steelers.
INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
- Beckham
- Green
- Smith-Schuster
- Landry
- Boyd
ALSO SEE
Stacking quarterbacks
Stacking interior defensive line
Stacking the running backs
Stacking the edge rushers
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