This is plagerized from ESPN, but as the AFC North is the conference I watch the most:
AFC NORTH
Baltimore Ravens
Kicker
The Ravens have two rookies battling it out to replace Justin Tucker, who was released in May amid an investigation into sexual misconduct.
Tyler Loop, a sixth-round pick, remains the favorite over undrafted free agent John Hoyland, but the competition has been close throughout the first week of training camp. Loop made his first 23 kicks of the summer and is 28-of-31 (90.3%). Hoyland also has missed three attempts, going 25-of-28 (89.2%).
The Ravens would like to settle on a kicker around the preseason finale on Aug. 23.
“When the winner shows, it’s going to show,” Ravens special teams coach Chris Horton said. "How soon is that going to be? I don’t know, but I do know that these guys are going to be out here getting valuable work every day and in these preseason games.
Cincinnati Bengals
Right guard
Early in camp, the battle was billed between Cody Ford and Lucas Patrick, who signed with the Bengals on a one-year deal this offseason. But so far, Ford safely has the inside track.
Ford is firmly in the RG1 spot, something that has been strengthened only with Patrick dealing with an injury that kept him out of practice for a couple of days. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said the offensive line has done well in training camp.
Cleveland Browns
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Quarterback
The Browns opened camp with what was billed as a four-way QB competition, but the first week saw veterans Joe THE ELITE DRAGON Flacco and Kenny 10 thumbs Pickett take the majority of first-team reps.
Pickett’s hamstring injury has seemingly paved the way for Flacco to lead the starting offense and stake his claim to be the starter. It has also opened more opportunities for rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders to make an impression, too.
Coach Kevin Stefanski said he has a tentative timeline to make a decision on the starter but wants to evaluate each quarterback in various situations before moving forward.
Pittsburgh Steelers
No. 2 wide receiver
Sound familiar? A year ago, that was the most talked about position battle (other than quarterback, of course) and on paper, the Steelers are in a similar position this year after trading away George Pickens.
The room is led by DK Metcalf, but the order behind him is a little murky. During minicamp, wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni said receiver Calvin Austin III, a speedy yards-after-catch (YAC) threat drafted in 2022, was the team’s WR2 – but there are other players on the roster battling for the role, including Robert Woods, Scotty Miller and Roman Wilson.
The Steelers also acquired receiving threat Jonnu Smith. General manager Omar Khan downplayed the possibility of adding another true wide receiver to the roster, but the team brought in Gabe Davis for a visit earlier this offseason. There could be several wide receivers available on the trade market, too.
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Honestly I don’t think the Steelers WR2 is going to be all that important. Arthur Smith has historically liked to use just 1 dominant WR2, and while you can point to occasions where he did have a decent WR2 the usage still is less than most offenses.
Arthur Smith is going to run the ball a lot, so there aren’t going to be a ton of targets to go around. Assuming everyone stays healthy, Metcalf is clearly going to lead them in targets this year. Freiermuth came in 2nd last year- I think some combination of him and Jonnu Smith will be 2nd and 3rd this year. They have been running 04 personnel in camp. Gainwell has been used as almost more of a slot receiver than a RB according to a lot of reports. Warren is also a very good receiving RB, and Johnson appears to be capable too. Jonnu Smith has been getting carries, and Conner Heyward has a lot of experience carrying out of the backfield too. Arthur Smith has already demonstrated a love for 12, 13, 22, and 23 personnel. I suspect that at the end of the season, the WR with the 2nd most targets will still be behind multiple TE’s and RB’s.
Reports are that Roman Wilson was struggling up until yesterday. Robert Woods and Scotty Miller are fine WR5/6 guys, but I don’t expect more than that. Skoronek is a borderline TE- I expect to see him get a lot of snaps as a blocker but not a lot of targets (similar to Van Jefferson last year), especially if Roman Wilson struggles. So that really just leaves Calvin Austin, who is probably a WR3 on most teams.
To be fair the battle between Austin and Wilson for snaps might still be the most interesting one on the roster. QB is pretty much a lock (QB3 slightly complicated by Will Howard’s hand injury, but I still expect the team to keep him and cut Thompson). The 5 starting o-linemen are locks, and none of the backups have done a ton to make a case for themselves (arguably they could still use a proper OT3). The top 3 RB’s and TE’s are all locks. The only questions left on offense are how they allocate across positions and make room for Special Teamers. WR6 vs TE4 vs FB1 vs RB4 for example.
Not a whole lot of questions on defense either. The D-line has the top-3 locked, and the top-5 basically locked. OLB has the top-4 locked. ILB has the top-4 locked. CB has the top-3 locked, and top-5 close to locked. Safety has the top-4 locked. So the battles are for things like DL6/7, OLB5, OLB5/6, CB6, Safety 5.
In general, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of competition for the Steelers this summer. The real battles are for guys who are fighting for helmets, fighting to justify carrying one position vs another for the sake of special teams value, or fighting for a helmet on game days.
Boswell is a lock as arguably the best kicker in the league, and Christian Kuntz seems like a lock a Long Snapper. So really the most exciting battle in camp might be for Punter between Waitman and Johnston.