Ravens Poised to Make AFC North History

Ever since the realignment of the NFL took place in 2002, resulting in the dissolving of the AFC Central and creating the AFC North, no team has won the division three straight years in a row, but that could very well change in 2025.

There have been six instances of teams winning back-to-back division titles, with the Baltimore Ravens having the most such occurrences over that span, with three. There has only been one instance when a team has three claimed of four, the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2007-2011.

The most significant determining factor in which team winds up on top of what is widely believed to be the consistently toughest division in the NFL has been the health and availability of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Baltimore has claimed the AFC North title in four of their star signal-caller's first seven years in the league and the only times they haven't were in seasons where he missed time due to injury, illness or both.

Since his first year as a full-time starter in 2019, the Ravens have reached double-digit wins every season he has played in every game. They still managed to achieve the feat in the 2020 season when he missed one game due to being on the COVID-19 list, and that just so happened to be a pivotal matchup against the Steelers that had to be rescheduled twice before taking place on a Wednesday.

The Cincinnati Bengals' short-lived supremacy over the division lasted just two seasons from 2021-2022, during which they claimed back-to-back division titles and even made a run to the Super Bowl. However, those also happened to coincide with a two-year stretch where Jackson led the Ravens to hot starts and was leading the division before he suffered lower-leg injuries that cost him the remainder of both seasons.

After starting 8-3 under his stewardship in 2021, they went from having the best record in the conference to not winning a single game the rest of the way, resulting in them missing the postseason for the first time since 2017.

The following year, in 2022, they started 8-4 and were tied for the best record in the division with the Bengals, whom they held the head-to-head tiebreaker over because they had won the first matchup between the two teams that season. This time around, the Tyler Huntley-led Ravens managed to win two of their last five games to reach double-digit wins and punch their ticket to the playoffs.

In the three years he has played and started every game, Jackson has been voted to the Pro Bowl, and he even received enough votes to make it in 2021 as well, despite just playing in 11 games. He is a two-time league MVP and was just robbed of his third this past season, even though he had the greatest and most efficient dual-threat season of any quarterback in NFL history with 4,000-plus passing yards and 900-plus rushing yards.

The Ravens and general manager Eric DeCosta have assembled arguably the best collection of talent Jackson has ever had at his disposal following the moves they made this offseason. They were able to retain two-time Pro Bowl left tackle Ronnie Stanley after a resurgent 2024 season, bring in key veterans at premium positions in five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie and they made the most of their league-high 11 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft by getting great value on all three days with none greater than first-round safety Malaki Starks and second-round pass rusher Mike Green.