Arizona Cardinals: If you watched the Cardinals play for any length of time last year, you know their offense was impotent as they come. They couldn't run the ball, they couldn't block and their quarterback situation was nothing short of disastrous after Kevin Kolb went down for the season (John Skelton, Ryan Lindley and Brian Hoyer threw for a combined total of 3 toucdown across the final 10 games, the team went 1-9 over this span.) This lack of offensive success led the ownership to pretty much nuke the team firing the general manager, longtime coach Ken Wishenhunt and bringing in a number of new starters. At least on paper, the Cardinals made a lot of smart choices offensively. New coach Bruce Arians has been absolute force of an offensive cordinator in the past half-decade. With his pedigree of success and brilliant schemes/playcalling, I have no doubt he'll be able to turn this offense around. Aside from Arians, the most important offensive acquisition they made this offseason was quarterback Carson Palmer. Palmer gives them a MAJOR upgrade at the position that gave them an abundance of headaches last season. Palmer may not be an elite player anymore, but he gives them much-needed stability and leadership at the position and unlike the fill-ins last year, will actually be able to get the ball to Larry Fitzgerald and the rest of the receiving corps. Continuing the mass overhaul, the Cardinals also scooped up veteran running back Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall is coming off an injury-plagued season in 2012, but he had his best years as a Steeler with Arians at the helm of the offense. If the Cardinals O-line can hold up and he can stay healthy, Mendenhall could very well return to his glory days with the Steelers. Where the Cardinals focused on overhauling the offense to their fix their previous, defensively they focused on adding depth to their already-stacked unit. Guys like John Abraham, Yerimah Bell and Karlos Dansby bring veteran leadership to this young defense and can still play at a pretty high level when called upon while Jasper Brinkley and Matt Shaugnessy are rush and pass-rush specialists respectively who will get the chance to go and contribute as part of this big defensive rotation. This amount of depth should be hugely beneficial to the whole defense and also helps cushion the loss of all-pro inside linebacker Daryl Washington, who is suspended for the four games for violating the league's drug policy. The Cardinals are a team with a great young defense who knows how to create turnovers and an offense that has the pieces in place to be a much-improved unit. Personally, I think this team is the biggest sleeper in the NFL and would not be the least bit surprised if they hit .500 this season.
St. Louis Rams: The Rams returned to relevancy last year with a 7-8-1 record in Jeff Fisher's first year with the squad. The team surprised a lot of people with their resilience and mostly solid peformances despite being relatively young and lacking a lot of star power. Their defense has suddenly emerged as one of the top units in the league. Robert Quinn an Chris Long make for one of the best defensive end combos in the league after Quinn's breakout season in 2012, James Lauranitius is a general in the middle of the field and amongst the most feared inside linebackers in the game, Michael Brockers made a big impact in his rookie year and should only continue to improve and the cornerback tandem of Cortland Finnegan and Janoris Jenkins are two huge talents with great coverage skills that know how to take the ball away. While their defense is without a question top-notch (and should only get better with the addition of rookie outside linebacker Alec Ogletree,) the Rams offense leaves a lot to be desired. The team has invested a lot in young weapons for quarterback Sam Bradford, adding to that arsenal by trading a lot of picks to move up and select highly-touted wideout Tavon Austin in the 1st round of this year's draft and throwing a lot of money at free-agent tight end Jared Cook. In theory, this seems like a good move because of how highly regarded Austin is and the fact that Cook showed flashes of brilliance in his time with the Titans. The problem is that neither of them really did much of anything in the preseason. After watching them play multiple times in exhibition games, Bradford seems to only have a connection with Chris Givens (who is in-line for a huge year if the favoritism from Bradford lasts into the regular season) and be completely out-of-whack with the rest of his receivers. I don't know if it's on Bradford or his receivers, but for now Austin and Cook seem kind out of it and for the sake of this team's success, they better hope they fix it during the regular season. Bradford has been a stable albeit unspectacular player in his career so far, 2013 is going to prove how much he's actually worth to this football team and if he can breakout in the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks. Another issue with the Rams going into 2013 is the whole running back carousel they have at the moment. The loss of Steven Jackson is pretty devastating to this team as he was the one guy on the roster that could be counted on for consistent success. With that safety belt gone, the team could have some difficulty readjusting. Daryl Richardson is the current starter and wasn't bad as the 3rd-down back last year, he just doesn't have a big enough sample size in the league to show if he handle the starting duties. Backups Zac Stacy and Issiah Pead aren't proven either and haven't done anything to show that they can take the reigns if Richardson doesn't work out. The Rams seems to the sexy pick for a sleeper playoff team in the NFC this year, but with the question marks surrounding their entire offense, I just don't see it happening.
San Fransisco 49ers: The 49ers rode the back of their ever-so-exciting quarterback Colin Kaepernick (who only became the starter after incumbent Alex Smith went down with a concussion and impressed Jim Harbugh so much in his limited time that he kept the job even after Smith was healthy) to a Super Bowl in which they rallied big time from a 28-6 deficit at the start of the 3rd quarter and were just 10 yards of taking out the Ravens in what would've been one of the craziest and most improbable comebacks in NFL history. Going into 2013, the 49ers are poised to return to get another chance at the Lombardi Trophy and with much of the same roster in place, they very well could. Their defense is still about as deep and talented as they come, even with dominant safety Dashon Goldson leaving for the Buccaneers in the offseason and Harbaugh has proven in his short tenure in the NFL that he is one of the smartest, innovative and just plain best coaches in the league. That being said, it will certainly not be the easiest road back to the Super Bowl for the 49ers. First off, their receiving corps took a huge hit when Michael Crabtree went down with an Achilles injury in mini-camp in March. Crabtree was easily the favorite target of Kaepernick and the chemistry between the two was electric. Crabtree is set to return before the end of the season, but his absence for at least the majority of the year could be absolutely devastating to this offense. In the meantime while Crabtree and fellow veteran Mario Manningham are out with injuries, Kaepernick is going to have work on his rapport with the guys that are going to be on-the-field with him to start the year. Thankfully for the 49ers, he did start to build something with tight end Vernon Davis during the playoffs after all but ignoring him in the regular season. If Kapernick can continue his strong connection with Davis and/or establish something with big-time new pickup Anquan Boldin, Kyle Williams or rookie Quinton Patton, it should be smooth sailing for the 49ers this year. If he fails to establish a connection with any of these guys, the 49ers will be sulking until Crabtree comes back. Adversity like this will prove what kind of a quarterback Kaepernick is. Was last year a fluke or is he really the phenom people think he is? We will know the answer to that question once the 2013 season comes to a close. The 49ers have a lot of potential and hope on the horizon and if everything comes together for them this year (a.k.a Colin Kaepernick continues to play a high level) we could be looking at the next Super Bowl champions.
Seattle Seahawks: The Seahawks came out of nowhere to go 8-0 at home and advance to the NFC divisional round before falling just short to the Falcons despite an impressive comeback. The surprise factor is now gone, the Seahawks are one of the most talented and well-rounded teams in the league and should be perennial title contenders for the foreseeable future. They are probably the only team in the league that really has no problems on either side of the ball. Their offense is led by Russell Wilson, who shined as a rookie and should continue to do so unless the dreaded sophomore slump hits and Marshawn Lynch is one of the toughest running backs in the league, who has only gotten more productive each season he's spent with the Seahawks. Defensively, they know how to get to the quarterback, contain the run and have the undisputed most talented secondary in the league. The scary part is that they've only gotten better during the offseaon by adding pass-rushing phenom Cliff Avril and the ever-improving, versatile defensive end/tackle Michael Bennett. Really the only problem they have is that new acquisition Percy Harvin is currently injured and isn't slated to return till November. The team will be fine in the meantime without Harvin, but I except them to start rolling when Harvin joins the mix. He is such just an explosive player and should make the Seahawks offense even more dynamic and hard to predict. If Percy Harvin gels with the team upon his return and Russell Wilson doesn't disappoint in his second year, The Seahawks could be the frontrunner for a championship this year.
Projected Standings for the NFC West:
1.Seattle Seahawks (12-4)
2.San Fransisco 49ers (11-5)
3.Arizona Cardinals (8-8)
4.St. Louis Rams (7-9)
No comments:
Post a Comment