12 Jun 2019
Are the Los Angeles Rams merely a one-season wonder or are they on their way to the top of the pile in the NFC? The Arizona Cardinals have a new head coach and the San Francisco 49ers now have their franchise quarterback in place. No NFC team has more consecutive winning seasons than Seattle. But this division is in transition and we analyse the four participants ahead of the new NFL season.
LOS ANGELES RAMS
A year ago the LA Rams were coming off a 4-12 season and their new head coach was the untested Sean McVay, 31. It is unfair to say they did little in free agency, since they took the best free agent signing available in Cincinnati left tackle Andrew Whitworth.
The transformation was instant. Whitworth provided the protection necessary for young, second-year quarterback Jared Goff (pictured above) to blossom. His 28-touchdown, seven-interception season saw the Rams climb to the top of the NFC West with an 11-5 record and McVay was named Coach of the Year.
Todd Gurley II ran for 1,305 yards, defensive tackle Aaron Donald recorded 11 sacks and the Rams sent their return man, kicker and punter to the Pro Bowl.
The Rams’ wild-card loss prompted a trade for cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib, as well as receiver Brandin Cooks. Pairing former Miami tackle Ndamukong Suh next to Donald will only make things more difficult for opposing attacks.
Suh, Peters and Talib have all been troublemakers on other teams and Los Angeles is an easy place to find trouble. Yet their respective one-year deals may help them behave, and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips won a Super Bowl with Talib in Denver.
Suh must show he can adjust to being the nose tackle in a 3-4 system, having done much of his damage in a 4-3 system at either end or tackle, but with Michael Brockers and Donald producing the heat on the edge, opposing offenses are going to find life tough.
With outstanding special teams, the Rams appear loaded for another run at the playoffs and are 8/13 favourites with Genting Casino to win the division.
While some will counter that the Rams have not won a playoff game since 2004, it must be remembered that Arizona had not won a playoff game in years when ending a decade of non-winning seasons and reached the Super Bowl in 2008.
As such, the Rams’ Genting Casino odds of 9/1 to win the Super Bowl may also be worthy of interest.
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
No team had a better record down the stretch last season than the San Francisco 49ers. From an 0-9 start, with the last three losses by a combined 63 points, things looked bleak for new head coach Kyle Shanahan.
But then New England arrived on the doorstep with a gift. Jimmy Garoppolo was acquired from the Patriots for a second-round draft pick on October 30 and everything changed. The quarterback, who was no wet-behind-the-ears passer, having been a second-round pick who backed up Tom Brady for three years and won both his starts in New England, led the 49ers to five straight victories in December.
The offense has added Notre Dame’s excellent right tackle Mike McGlinchey, the draft’s best at that position, along with expensive centre Weston Richburg, and replaced rusher Carlos Hyde with ex-Minnesota back-up Jerick McKinnon. Ex-Seattle teammates, linebacker Malcolm Smith and cornerback Richard Sherman, have also arrived, and Jamie Ward takes over from Eric Reid at safety, which are all positive moves for a team on the rise.
The revamped offensive line, which will have as many as four new starters, must protect Garoppolo if Shanahan’s zone-rushing scheme is to work effectively. There are questions over the pass defense, since there is not a scary pass rush up front, and Sherman has to prove he can remain healthy. Doubts remain whether the linebacking unit is up to scratch, too.
They face a tough start with three of four games on the road at Minnesota, Kansas City and at the LA Chargers, but hopes are rising after last season’s good finish, allied to the fact that their home slate sees them face just one team that made the playoffs last year (Rams). Five of those eight opponents each boasts a new head coach (Raiders, Bears, Cardinals, Lions and Giants).
Their Genting Casino odds of 3/1 make the 49ers second favourites to win the division and with three of their last four games at home, those odds may seem a little generous to some.
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
No team has undergone a bigger makeover in talent and personality than the Seahawks this offseason and, as a result, they are out to 9/2 to win the NFC West with Genting Casino.
In the last six seasons, Peter Carroll’s team won eight playoff games, took two NFC titles and won a Super Bowl.
Yet in 2017, it failed to reach the post-season and now has just five starters left from the 2013 Super Bowl-winning team: quarterback Russell Wilson, receiver Doug Baldwin, linebacker Bobby Wagner and safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas.
The loss of tight end Jimmy Graham, receiver Paul Richardson and defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson in free agency has not helped.
After no Seahawk back ran for more than 240 yards, Seattle drafted Rashaad Penny, the nation’s top rusher and a good return man, while the addition of guard/tackle D.J. Fluker, who arrives from the Giants, looks an equally sound move.
The Seahawks have a lack of depth behind Baldwin at the receiver spot and there is also a potential lack of leadership in the locker room now that some strong personalities have departed.
On paper, this is the weakest group of players that Carroll has had to work with and by the time they arrive o=in London to face the Oakland Raiders on October 14, we shall have a much better idea of which way this team is trending.
ARIZONA CARDINALS
The Cardinals have a new man at the helm. Steve Wilks arrives from Carolina with limited experience – just one year as an NFL coordinator and the same as a head coach (one year at Division II Savannah State in 1999).
Having taken over from Bruce Arians, who retired, he inherits a defense that ranked sixth last year and an offense that ranked 22nd, largely due to the Week 1 injuries sustained by running back David Johnson and guard Mike Iupati.
The oft-injured Sam Bradford and rookie Josh Rosen will vie for the quarterback spot after Carson Palmer’s retirement, but second-round receiver Christian Kirk will start immediately and should take the load off of elite receiver Larry Fitzgerald who is now 35.
The defense returns only four starters from last season, but the biggest concern was the offensive line, which allowed 250 quarterback hits in the last two seasons. The line got stronger when the Cardinals signed right guard Justin Pugh to a monster $45million five-year deal, while right tackle Andre Smith signed a two-year deal.
This team has got a lot younger. While not fully in rebuild mode, they are flying under the radar for a good reason and their Genting Casino 11/1 odds to win the NFC West may look generous until they face a brutal run-in with games against foes that that include Detroit, Green Bay, Atlanta and the LA Rams in the last five weeks of the season.
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