LogFAQs > #978720370

NFC West

1. St. Louis Rams
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. Las Vegas Pumpkins
4. San Francisco 49ers

Without doing any research into this, I want to say that the Rams have made the playoffs every season in QB Ryan Tannehill's career, and have won the division in most of them. The loss of FS Harrison Smith to retirement, OLB Casey Palmer to free agency, and CB Quincy Wilson to RFA shouldn't have too much of a negative effect on a perennially Top 5 D. In what is becoming a trend league-wide, the left side of the OL has really struggled, and Tannehill has shouldered a larger load than usual due to an increasingly unreliable running game (thanks to both ineffectiveness and injuries), which has affected his efficiency and turnover rates. While not an elite HB, newly signed Jeremy Hill has not had a season with a sub-4.0 YPC as a starter and has only missed two games in his career, so he might be exactly what this team needs in a HB, and he's an above-average pass-catcher to boot. I would say that the Rams are the most vulnerable that they've been in a while (and yes I'm aware that they didn't win the division last season), but the defense is too elite and passing game too prolific to expect this team to have to get in via a wild card in back-to-back seasons.

After some really ugly seasons, the Seahawks have been .500 or better in three of the past four seasons, and have really done well at accruing and developing talent. It hasn't worked all the time as their interior OL keeps acting as a revolving door of disappointments and nobody has stuck with FS Byron Jones in the secondary. With several retirements, the front seven looked a bit shaky, but with their draft and free agency, I think that it looks good. The interior OL and running game, definitely correlated with both being equal to blame in my opinion, is what I think will be the most critical factor for them this season. It's held them back for so long, and it has to work out someday. Their ceiling is surprisingly high if they can turn it around, so I will put them second as a result.

The Pumpkins won the NFC West for the first time last season, and while their floor is still great with an elite defense that returns 10 of 11 starters and an offense that has further beefed up their already great-performing OL, there are some major questions for this team. Their bid to acquire HB Jamaal Williams resulted in him staying with the Colts, so they let MVP finalist and award-winning Kenyan Drake walk and replaced him with second-year HB Raheem Mostert. He had 14 carries last season, so he's as much of an unknown as anyone. Being a second-year HB though, the odds are not in his favor that he will be great this season, and at the very least he will not be as wildly productive as Drake was. The WR corps lose the Hall of Famer Gonzie Massey but speedsters Jakeem Grant and John Ross have, in small samples, exhibited great performances as a #2 and slot receiver respectively. They are moving up in their roles, so it's fair to question them, though I'm personally not too worried. While the starting defense looks fantastic, the depth took a great hit, especially at DL where there's plenty of rotation in a 4-3 D. This team had a career season last year, and while they will likely drop off a bit, they have only had one losing record (7-9) in the past five seasons, and I don't expect there will be a second in six.

The 49ers had a fast start last season before faltering thanks to HB Thomas Rawls' injury giving way to Jerrick McKinnon's 3.3 YPC in a run-heavy offense. That simply won't do. Kyler Murray's passer rating went from 60.4 to 73.8, but he passed for less than 2000 yards again, and Rawls isn't good enough to shoulder the load on offense, so you have to wonder what is the best-case scenario on offense this season. While the defense is not on the same level of the Rams or Wildcats, the 49ers D is still a fairly reliable unit with enough weaknesses to not be expected to be among the elites. With good health, the 49ers should be able to avoid double digit losses, but I just think that the rest of the division will be too much for the 49ers to handle to take the NFC West. A surprise run at a wild card isn't out of the question.