Seattle Seahawks
Predicted Record: 13-3
Division Record: 5-1
i. Arizona Cardinals: 2-0
ii. Saint Louis Rams: 1-1
iii. San Francisco 49ers: 2-0
Seattle found a way to retain most of their key pieces and acquire a top tier player in Jimmy Graham. Coupling the new tight end and Russell Wilson's deep ball, which has gotten significantly better in just the last year, can potentially give Seattle an entirely new attack plan that they can implement on offense. This young team will not only remain at an elite level, but look to get even better than they were last year. Not much else needs to be said to justify this prediction.
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| These old enemies are now teammates who will look to take Seattle to its third consecutive Super Bowl. |
Saint Louis Rams
Predicted Record: 9-7
Division Record: 4-2
i. Arizona Cardinals: 1-1
ii. San Francisco 49ers: 2-0
iii. Seattle Seahawks: 1-1
If any team is to battle Seattle for the top spot in the division, I'd expect it to be the Saint Louis Rams. I'm a huge fan of head coach Jeff Fisher and like what this team did at the draft. They acquired Todd Gurley, someone many believed to be the best running back of the draft class, and looked to shore up their offensive line with the following picks. The Rams also managed to sign Nick Fairley, who would give an already talented defensive line a massive boost. After a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Rams also received Nick Foles, a new quarterback that they wish to deploy and believe will work well in their system. Their defense is already vaunted and their offense is a little lackluster, but both sides of the ball should benefit from these improvements.
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| Adding Nick Fairley to a defensive line that is already commanding is a scary thought. |
Arizona Cardinals
Predicted Record: 8-8
Division Record: 2-4
i. Saint Louis Rams: 1-1
ii. San Francisco 49ers: 1-1
iii. Seattle Seahawks: 0-2
The Arizona Cardinals have a phenomenal defense and even though Darnell Dockett departed to a division rival, we should still expect some great things out of that group. Their offense should look better with Carson Palmer returning from injury and some of the wide receivers showed a bit of promise last year. The running game looks encouraging with Andre Ellington taking the role as a lead back too. This is a good team but I don't see enough consistency from their players to warrant giving them a better record than this. Unfortunately, when I think of the Cardinals I cannot help but think about the 35-6 beatdown they suffered by the hands of Seattle this previous season. I know that I shouldn't allow that one game to cloud my judgment (especially since Arizona was hit by the injury bug hard then), but it's just too hard not to. If you ask me to do this again in a couple of months I'll probably see this team getting another win or two and end up with a winning record, but right now I'm just being pessimistic.
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| The two highly athletic and talented defensive backs plan to keep the Cardinals competitive. |
San Francisco 49ers
Predicted Record: 6-10
Division Record: 1-5
i. Arizona Cardinals: 1-1
ii. Saint Louis Rams: 0-2
iii. Seattle Seahawks: 0-2
The San Francisco 49ers had one of the most obscure off-seasons of all time, but I don't think they are in as bad shape as some people think. Their defense should still be above average as they signed Darnell Dockett to replace Justin Smith and get a significant lift from Navarro Bowman's healthy return. In fact their linebacking corps improves just because of that, in spite of Chris Borland's retirement. Both of their safeties have made the Pro Bowl the past two seasons as well. The only real weakness here is the secondary, where the 49ers have lost a couple of starters. The offense may even find improvement as Colin Kaepernick has worked extensively with Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner and practiced on speeding up the pace of the game with Head Coach Jim Tomsula. This second part should be a big deal to 49er fans since the team constantly let the play clock run out and either burned a timeout or got called for a delay of game as a result of that. Additionally, they added speed demons Reggie Bush and Torrey Smith which should expand the playbook the 49ers have disposable to them. Basically what I'm trying to say is that there is still quite a bit of upside with this team but they were just so disappointing last year that I'm keeping my expectations in check.
As a 49ers fan, the only thing that I'm gravely disappointed of is the lack of attempt to improve the offensive line from the front office. The group from last year gave up the most sacks in the league which is astounding if you consider how physically gifted Kaepernick is in terms of size and speed. At that point wouldn't prioritizing that need be common sense..? Anyways, Daniel Kilgore returns from injury but a lot of help is still needed, especially now that Anthony Davis retired. I can go on a tangent about how much I hate the ownership and how they are running this team, that was so close to a title, in the opposite direction, but that's another discussion altogether.
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| Maybe one day I will get around to writing an article that highlights the hypocrisy and idiocy of these two men. |
Songs my iTunes shuffle played while I wrote this article:
Complicated - Bon Jovi
Le Duex - Hollywood Undead
Fever - Bullet for My Valentine
Unknown Soldier - Breaking Benjamin
Despair Factor - AFI
Headlong - Queen
Headlong - Queen
A Beautiful Indifference - Rise Against
Paper Airplanes (Makeshift Wings) - AFI
Wild in the Streets - Bon Jovi
Wild in the Streets - Bon Jovi
Lanterns - Birds of Tokyo
Breath - Breaking Benjamin
Hurricane - 30 Seconds to Mars
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