NFL Preview: NFC West

The NFC West has more question marks surrounding it than any other divison in the NFL.  Can Jimmy Garoppolo be good when there’s meaning behind the 49ers season?  Arizona is replacing a head coach while going with either an injury prone veteran or a rookie QB.  How can they prevent a disastrous year?  The Rams are a favorite by many to win the SB but can they handle all of the personalities they brought on board?  And the Seahawks, at least defensively, are nearly unrecognizable compared to the team that beat Denver in the SB 48.  As Samuel Jackson once said because he was told to in a movie….”Hold onto your butts.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W6as8oVcuM

Arizona Cardinals: New Head Coach Steve Wilks certainly isn’t lacking any confidence as one of the first things he said when he was officially announced as Arizona’s new leader was “you guys made the right decision.” He is going to have his work cut out for him as the Cardinals have a lot of holes both on offense and defense.  Even though they moved up to get Josh Rosen in the draft, it’s likely Sam Bradford will get the start.  But how long can Bradford hold onto the position is the question.  He hasn’t played a full season more than two times in his career and the last time he did was six years ago.  So if I was a betting man, I would say Rosen will get his opportunity in 2018.  Another guy  in the “if he can stay healthy” discussion is running back David Johnson. Johnson got hurt in game one last year and missed the rest of the season.  However, if he can stay on the field he should be able to take pressure off whoever they decide to put behind a rebuilt offensive line.  The Cardinals drafted two offensive linemen in this years draft; Mason Cole out of Michigan and Corey Cunningham out of Cincinnati.  At this point, they don’t expect either of them to start but the thinking is that they’ll be ready when Rosen is.  Of their seven picks, six of them were offensive players. Other than Rosen, another guy to watch out for is WR out of Texas A&M, Christian Kirk.  AZ fans are hoping that he’ll learn from long time vet Larry Fitzgerald before the face of the organization calls it quits…if that ever happens.  Defensively they will miss safety Tyrann Mathieu and corner back Tramon Williams to name a few.  That being said they have two of the best defensive players in the league in CB Patrick Peterson and DE Chandler Jones.  But it takes more than two great players to make a great defense.  Yes, they were a top ten D last season but will be switching to a 4-3 on top of replacing some good talent so I have my concerns about their top D status this season.  Overall this is an experimental year; a wait and see how it goes before tossing Rosen to the wolves type of deal.  Hard to see a .500 with their schedule.  5-11.

Seattle Seahawks:  Michael Bennet, Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor: gone.  Earl Thomas: wants to be gone.  And the Legion of Boom is no more.  A once storied defense led by  Sherman, Bennet, Chancellor and Thomas is now a shell of what it used to be.  In 2017, Seattle’s defense allowed 332 points, their most in seven seasons.  So one can easily see why the front office was more than ok with dismantling this unit.  Chancellor was a bit of a surprise but  after he suffered a neck injury in November, it’s certainly easy to understand why he chose to hang it up.  It will be tough to replace all of those guys and even tougher if Thomas gets his wish.  Earlier this summer, Thomas tweeted that he’s asking the Seahawks to either pay him or trade him.   It doesn’t look like either of those things are going to happen anytime soon so they’ll have yet more drama on their hands when it comes to the defensive side of the football.  Offensively, Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin will do their best to keep them in the division race with LA but that will be a tall task.  Yes, Wilson was stellar last season throwing for over 3,900 yards, 34 tds and only 11 Ints but he lost one of his favorite red zone targets in Jimmy Graham and the Seahawks replaced him with Ed Dickson; a great blocker but not even close to the producer that Graham is.  Seattle finally decided to invest in their Oline this season so that should be an upgrade for Wilson, at least. In 2016, the Seahawks were paying a league-low $1 million per man on the Oline.  This season, however, they are paying $9 million to LT Dwayne Brown and center Justin Britt.  At running back, they’ll likely go with the rookie out of San Diego State, Rashaad Penny.  He should give Wilson some much needed support that Seattle hasn’t seen since Marshawn Lynch left them in the dust.   All in all there’s just too many questions for me about this team.  Wilson gives them a shot but unlike the Packers with Aaron Rogers, I don’t see him elevating an average team to the playoffs. 8-8.

 

Los Angeles Rams:   On paper, the Rams should be the best team in the NFL.  On offense they saw their young QB in Jared Goff take a huge step in his second season and Todd Gurley got a nice pay day this summer, four years $60 million, as a byproduct of what he did in 2017 (1,305 rushing yds, 788 receiving and 19 total TDs)  Gurley is the type of back that give me hope for the return of the work horse style running back we used to see throughout the league.  Their line is solid but they are an aging group.  Left Tackle Andrew Whitworth is 36 while their center, John Sullivan, is 32.  Can they continue to pave the way for an explosive offense with little depth behind their vets?  Can they make up for Sammy Watkins, who was traded to KC?  More than likely as they picked up Brandon Cooks via trade from New England.  Cooks is one of four WR’s to record three seasons of 1,000 yards and seven TD’s before reaching the age of 25.  Offensively, Head Coach Sean McVay should see even more improvement in his second season.  On the defensive side of the ball this group looks like an all star Madden team:  Corners Aquib Talib and Marcus Peters were both acquired via trade while Ndamukong signed a one year deal.  Add those guys to the likes of monster Aaron Donald (11 sacks in 2017) and underrated Michael Brockers and we could be looking at the best defense in the NFL.  But can McVay and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips handle all the personalities? Talib and Suh have had their share of drama while even Peters caused some issues with Kansas City team officials.    “I want them to have personalities,” Phillips said, “a lot of them are really good because of their personalities.”  If they can manage that roster, LA should be a top team in the NFL.  11-5

 

San Francisco 49ers:  The 49ers started the 2017 season with a horrible 0-9 record but once they secured Jimmy Garaoppolo in a surprising trade with New England, San Francisco didn’t lose a game that the young QB started, finishing the season on a five game win streak.  With one of the fastest WR’s in the league in Marquise Goodwin and a healthy Pierre Garcon, San Francisco should have a pretty good passing attack.  But can they run the ball?  They moved on from Carlos Hyde and replaced him with the 5’9 205 pound Jerick McKinnon.  Clearly, HC Kyle Shanahan sees something not many NFL writers do as he only started 14 games in four seasons with the Vikings.  Defensively the 49ers made some small improvements from 2016 to 2017 but overall they are still an underwhelming group.  Richard Sherman jumped ship so he should be a nice addition to their secondary…if..wait for it….he can stay healthy.  LB Rueben Foster will miss the first two games of the season for violating the NFL’s conduct and substances of abuse polices.  Foster was also involved in domestic violence allegations that resulted in him pleading no contest to misdemeanor weapons possession.  The domestic violence charges were dropped but the fact of the matter is there’s been a lot of noise around this guy and GM John Lynch no doubt has him on a tight leash.   The 49ers are hoping that their investments in the D line begin to pay off this year.  Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner and Solomon Thomas will be looking to have breakout seasons in 2018.  I can’t imagine this defense is anything better than middle of the road or worse.    Was their five game win streak to close the season a fluke?  I say yes…. 7-9

 

NFC WEST:  Rams: 11-5.  Seahawks: 8-8.  49ers: 7-9.  Cardinals: 5-11