Do you get tired of hearing it? “The NFC West is the NFL’s toughest division.” It’s said so often it’s accepted as common knowledge among casual fans and learned observers alike.
Now that the 2014 regular season is upon us, let’s sing it again. This time with feeling. The NFC West boasts three bona fide playoff contenders. Like last season, it will be a crime if all three do not make it into the postseason derby.
Here they are in reverse order of finish:
- Team “Where’s Sam?”
- Team “Not Again!”
- Team Turmoil
- Team “We Got This.”
Where’s Sam?
The St. Louis Rams coulda been a contenda. Always a tough out, the Rams nearly pulled off a win at home against the eventual Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks. Back in week eight of last Season the birds barely escaped St. Louis — missing Sam Bradford (again) — with a 14 – 9 victory. The Seahawks’ 14 points were their third lowest offensive output of the season. Despite splitting their home-and-away series with their other two division opponents, the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers, the Seahawks actually put up fewer points in their two combined games against the Rams (41 — both wins) than they did against the other two division rivals.
Things are tough all over for the St. Louis Non-Sams. Bradford has been shelved for the entire season after suffering an ACL tear to the same knee that ruined most of his 2013 season. It looks like dynamo Zac Stacy will be asked to carry the load again and again for the Rams as they try to cobble together an offensive identity with 34-year-old journeyman backup quarterback Shaun Hill.
The Rams’ front four may actually be even better than it was last season, with four first-round draft picks peering out of their facemasks. Not included in this bunch is the Rams’ seventh-round draft pick, media sensation Michael Sam, who was let go at final cut-downs and not invited to join the practice Squad. So, no Sams for the Rams.
Team “Not Again!”
The Arizona Cardinals were robbed of a playoff berth last season — the price you pay for playing in the NFL’s toughest division. It’s likely to happen again in 2014. The needle was — and still may be — pointing up for the Cardinals, who finished last season on the outside looking in at the playoffs with a 10 – 6 record that included a defeat of the Seahawks in Seattle. It remains the only home loss in Russell Wilson’s entire Seahawks career, playoffs included.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they still play in the same division. The Seahawk and 49ers are still the top hurdles to get over. With the recent losses in personnel, including: defensive end Darnell Dockett (knee) and linebackers Daryl Washington (substance abuse suspension) and Karlos Dansby (free agency) it’s up to the still formidable Calais Campbell, and young Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu to hold together the league’s best run-stopping defense.
Don’t sleep on the red birds’ offense, either. Larry Fitzgerald is still a pro’s pro at the wide receiver position and he is complemented ably by Michael Floyd and rookie sensation, diminutive and speedy John Brown. Quarterback Carson Palmer, while not elite, is still capable of delivering the mail to a strong receiving corps. The Cardinals’ greatest weakness is their patchwork running back group.
What this all adds up to is a likely repeat 10 – 6 or (more likely) 9 – 7 winning record, but no playoff berth. Again.
Team Turmoil
Think back to right after the conclusion of the NFC Championship game in January. The Seattle Seahawks managed one more big play than the 49ers could muster. It made all the difference. It was fair to conclude that both teams were pretty evenly matched at that moment.
Oh what a difference an offseason makes. While the Seahawks have conducted themselves as determined professionals, the 49ers, with every same opportunity, have pretty much had the wheels come off of their clown car.
Star defensive end, Aldon Smith went to crazy town and will be staying there for the first nine weeks of the 2014 season. Star linebacker NaVorro Bowman remains out while recovering from his horrific knee injury suffered in the NFC Championship game. Defensive end Ray McDonald was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse and is at risk of being suspended for multiple games or even banned outright by his team. Most of their secondary left town: Safety Donte Whitner, cornerback Tarell Brown and cornerback Carlos Rogers all left in the offseason.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh has had his own rumored rifts that have needed addressing between him and the 49ers front office. Star (and recently re-signed for mega bucks) quarterback Colin Kaepernick has not looked good in preseason action, as could be said about the entire roster. To top it off, the 49ers opened a new state-of-the-art stadium and promptly got humiliated at home by the Denver Broncos.
The roster, while still stocked with talent, has yet to show up and regain the form that has led them to three straight NFC Championship game appearances. If you’re a believer in momentum, the 49ers ain’t got it. On the other hand …
Team “We got this.”
… The Seattle Seahawks have comported themselves with what, from the outside, appears to be the greatest of ease. No offseason dramas of note. No unsurvivable Post Super Bowl free agent departures ripped out the core of the team. In fact, the Seahawks were able to retain the top cornerback and the top safety in the NFL (Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas) with record-breaking-for-their positions contracts. They even had enough scratch left over to throw Marshawn Lynch a bone, deserved or not. Consider it a token of our appreciation for services rendered, Beast.
Quarterback Russell Wilson led the NFL in preseason passer rating and found a healthy Percy Harvin often on the receiving end, a rare treat Seahawks fans did not get much of last year. Other bumps and bruises suffered by key players like Russell Okung, Max Unger, Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor and Christine Michael are as of right now, in the rear view mirror. The Seahawks appear to be fully in control and ready to bully the league, once again.
Even when the league announced its new rules emphasis, dubbed by the media as the “Legion of Boom Rule,” the Seahawks barely broke a sweat over it, being one of the least penalized defensive units in the preseason. That’s good. They’ll need to continue that level of precision against their week one opponent, the visiting Green Bay Packers.
While they may fall off of their 13 – 3 record of a season ago, and repeating as Super Bowl Champions is becoming an extremely rare feat of late, the Seahawks should at the very least edge out the 49ers once again for the division crown. While the rest of the division remains stout, the can’t-get-out-of-their-own-way 49ers and the hard-luck Cardinals and Rams will have to wait another year.
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