The 2019 NFL season is nearly upon us, and to celebrate I’m doing something new to introduce the new season of team media guides. Starting with the four teams of the AFC North — Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers — I’m going to assign a letter grade to each effort. Let’s go!
Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens have been extremely consistent with their media guide design in recent years. Whether or not that’s a bad thing I leave to you to decide. As for me, this is simple and stoic but not anything outstanding. Grade: C+
Cincinnati Bengals
Now this is a much better effort from the Bengals. I dig the mosaic logo effect. I haven’t seen all of the league’s media guides for the season but this will be hard to top. Grade: A
Cleveland Browns
I’m surprised the Browns didn’t go with a Baker Mayfield cover rather than a generic player to be honest. This works well enough regardless. Grade: B-
Pittsburgh Steelers
I’ll give points for a decent game shot and for the cool wordmark on “2019.” I must, however, take points away because someone dialed the contrast on the photo up waaaay to high. Grade: B
