Team Outlooks: NFC West

These lists will go in order of last years division standings, and I will not be predicting standings here. This is just an objective view on what has happened with these teams over the offseason and a general educated guess of how they will fair in 2010.

For the 8 millionth year in a row, the NFC West may be the worst division in football. More after the break.

Arizona Cardinals


With Kurt Warner gone the Cards are going to have to accept failure with Matt Leinart. Wait? They got rid of him? Awesome! Now it's time to see if Derek Anderson can repeat his only good season with the Browns. He has a decent chance to do it since the Cardinals are a better team than the Browns. Their passing game should be acceptable even with the loss of Warner and Boldin. At least they don't have Leinart.

On defense they could have some problems. They have never been a great defense and they lost their two best players in the offseason, Antrel Rolle and Karlos Dansby. Their playoff runs of the last few years are probably over.


San Francisco 49ers


It's been years since the Niners were good. Basically since the Alex Smith era, and a little before that, the Niners of today have brought shame to the amazing franchise of the past. 2010 is a new year and possibly the start of something new. It's no secret that we at 18-1 love coach Singletary. He's done nothing but good since he's taken over. Vernon Davis is now living up to his potential and has become one of the best receiving tight ends in football. He drafted 2 offensive lineman in the first round this year and clearly has plans to form a run dominant offensive. Luckily for him, the Niners have this tough guy named Frank Gore. As an added bonus, Michael Crabtree could easily be a budding star. The only problem is they don't have a good QB. By years end the starter could be Alex Smith, David Carr, or newly acquired Troy Smith.

On the other side of the ball they have the best defender in football, Patrick Willis, leading a tough young defense. If they can get the Qb situation together the Niners could make things work. 


Seattle Seahawks


For those of you who think Pete Carroll will save the Seahawks, he won't. It's that simple. He was an overrated college coach, and history shows its very hard to go from college to the NFL.


Their defense can't play as bad as they did last year, but it still won't be very good. Lofa Tatupu, Aaron Curry and Marcus Trufant are really good, but they can't carry your team too far. 

Their offense has only one good player, Justin Forsett. Other than that Matt Hasslebeck, Mike Williams, Deion Branch and Julius Jones are all not going to do too much for the Hawks. Also, Golden Tate hasn't played very well so far and it looks like he needs a lot more time to adapt. They will probably have to fight the Rams for 2nd to last place in the NFC West. 


St. Louis Rams


Losing Donnie Avery really hurts Sam Bradford. He basically has no one to throw to now. Add that to their bad offensive line and you will most likely get a very sub par rookie season. ALL they have is Steven Jackson on offense. I feel bad for him, put him on a decent team and he is one of the best in the league. 

As for their defense, if you can name 1 other player besides Chris Long I'd be pretty impressed. The Rams have never been about great defense, even when they were the Greatest Show on Turf. This year should be another terrible year in the post Bulger era.