To be clear, James is not quite the player he was at his peak because his defensive value — blocks aside — is not as high. And as he reaches his mid-30s, declining athleticism could finally become an issue for James, particularly if his improved 3-point shooting proves fluky.
Big Ben had little explanation, except to say, “That’s just the AFC North.”
We get it. There are a ton of tough players on the Steelers and Bengals who can take hits and deliver them, Roethlisberger being among the toughest.
But Monday night was a little different from the last time we saw ugliness prevail when Ryan Shazier, Giovani Bernard, Vontaze Burfict and Antonio Brown were all on the same field — in that infamous 2016 AFC wild-card battle.
After Shazier, attempting to tackle Bernard, went down early in the first quarter with a devastating back injury that required him to be taken off the field on a spine board and taken by ambulance to a local hospital, an injury that prompted prayers from players and fans well beyond those in the stadium, you would think the approach of how the teams “took it each other” in the latest heated edition of their rivalry would have changed.
Meanwhile, the Jets seem to have too much scoring talent to fall out. I think the same is true of the Islanders, though they haven’t had the goaltending to make them a more comfortably-projected playoff team.
After that it gets trickier. Right now, only four points separate the top six teams in the Metropolitan Division. It’s still anybody’s division and all six are going to jockey for five playoff spots.
Passing on a quarterback (again) may be tough for Browns fans to swallow, but getting a top offensive tackle and a playmaking defender like Fitzpatrick to go with last year’s draft should excite Cleveland.