There is no secret which games on the Ravens' schedule are the most important, not to mention the ones about which fans get most excited.
It is the six annual intradivision, home-and-home contests Baltimore is tasked to play against its AFC North Division opponents: the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Those games carry special emphasis in 2016, if only for the fact that the Ravens have finished third for three straight years, resulting in playoff absences following two of those seasons (2013, 2015).
But with competitive balance and parity running rampant in the NFL these days, could the four interconference games against the weakened NFC East be even more vital this year?
If the Ravens field a healthier team in 2016, they could take advantage of an NFC East that last season featured no defense ranked in the league's top half -- Philadelphia and the Giants, respectively, ranked 30th and 32nd -- and had just one top-10 offense in the eighth-ranked Giants.
