The division consists of the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Prior to this realignment, these teams were members of the AFC Central Division, along with the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars.
The AFC North currently has four members: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The original four members of the AFC Central were the Browns, Bengals, Steelers and Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans).
The 1980 Cleveland Browns broke the Steelers' six-year run as division champions, but failed to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs, losing to the Oakland Raiders as a result of Red Right 88.
They won five divisional titles in six years, and played in Super Bowl XXX, in which they lost to the Dallas Cowboys.
Their first three games against the AFC North came in weeks three-through-five when they beat the Steelers, Browns and Ravens, respectively, each by three points.
Cincinnati clinched their first division title since '05 in a week 16 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, 17–10.
In the divisional round of the postseason, Baltimore's season came to an end with a 20–3 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, who would defeat the Jets one week later to win the conference.
Cincinnati clinched the division title in week 16 when the Steelers were upset by the 4–10 Ravens in Baltimore, quarterbacked by Ryan Mallett.
In the playoffs, Cincinnati (quarterbacked by A. J. McCarron) lost in a rematch with the Steelers, 18–16, in the final minutes of a heated battle.
Pittsburgh advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs, only to lose to Peyton Manning and the eventual Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos.
Despite victories in the playoffs against Miami and Kansas City, they fell to New England in the AFC Championship Game.
One particularly notable game in the 2017 occurred in a Week 13 Monday Night Football matchup between the Bengals and the Steelers.
However, both the Ravens and Browns failed to win their Divisional Round matchups, losing 17–3 to the Bills and 22–17 to the Chiefs respectively.
[6] The Steelers were given a shocking last minute invite to the NFL Playoffs, but their journey fell short with a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild card round.
The Bengals beat the Raiders at home 26–19 in the Wild Card matchup, the Titans 19–16 in Tennessee, and the Chiefs 27–24 in Kansas City to make it to the Super Bowl.
On January 15, 2023, in the Super Wild Card Weekend, the #3 ranked Bengals played at home against the #6 Ravens.
The Bengals then advanced to face against the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC Championship for the second consecutive time.
The Bengals would lose this time after a costly penalty allowed the Chiefs to hit a game winning field goal.
2023 marked the first time since 1935 that each team within an entire division finished the regular season with a winning record.
+ A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games, so the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year.