What happens when you take the biggest fish out of the pond? The guppies get bigger.
That’s what happened in 2024. The Cincinnati Bengals, coming off two consecutive seasons atop the division, and two years in which they went to the AFC Championship game, winning one.
Then Joe Burrow wasn’t healthy early in the year, and then he was lost for the season in Week 11.
So, while the big fish was away, the guppies grew.
All three other AFC North teams, the Browns, Steelers, and Ravens, went to the playoffs in the Bengals’ absence.