Ravens

Baltimore has broken through in February twice, both times against odds that looked worse than the final score. Two Super Bowls, two AFC Championships, the same two seasons.

The franchise exists because of a lawsuit settlement rather than an expansion draft: when Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in February 1996, the deal that let him go required leaving the Browns' name, colours and records behind in Cleveland. What arrived in Baltimore was a roster and a history with no name attached, and a fan contest supplied one — Ravens, after Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote the poem in Baltimore and is buried there.

Ray Lewis anchored the defense across both championship runs and is the player the club is built around in memory, in the way some franchises are remembered by a quarterback.

The division has mostly gone through Baltimore too: eight AFC North titles, most recently in 2023 and 2024. Steve Bisciotti has owned the club since 2004, when he bought out Modell's stake, and the Ravens go into each season measured against the two banners already up rather than against where they started.