July 15th, 2006 by Phil Frangos
NFL preview – NFC West
Ah, back after some needed time away and your patience for my absense was greatly appreciated. Well by most anyways. At any rate, there is no better time then now to start looking at who’s made the biggest improvements in the NFL, as camps set to open soon.
We’ll start in Arizona. With a good draft, and some key additions from free agency, this just might be the year the Cards turn up right for Arizona.
A new stadium, a new quarterback, a new running back. You get the theme going forward in the desert these days. It’s a fresh new attitude and it could produce alot of wins in seasons to come.
Going into a season with a new stadium, ownership needed to go out and get a player that would impact their team immediately. So they made a huge splash inking stud running back Edgerrin James to a 4 year contract. It didn’t hurt that USC QB, Matt Leinart fell to #10 in the draft for the Cardinals either. The other new face of the franchise, although might not have an impact this season, will definitely have a future impact as he develops under Kurt Warner’s mentoring.
Despite losing tackle Russell Davis and safety Quentin Harris on the defensive side of the ball, the acquisition of Kedrick Clancy at nose tackle should help the young core on the defense. I predict a 9-7 season for the Cardinals, although it might not get them in the playoffs, it will be a good season in the desert.
The San Francisco 49ers got there man in Maryland tight end Vernon Davis. A great weapon for QB Alex Smith to possess that’s forsure. After the loss of WR Brandon Lloyd to the Washington Redskins, the receiving core was looking pretty thin in Frisco, so Antonio Bryant was brought to help Davis.
Other key additions to the team this off season are John Madden’s favourite player and long time guard Larry Allen from Dallas. Not sure how many seasons Allen has left, but he should provide some good protection barring injury. The defense took a major hit as linebacker Julian Peterson left for Seattle, while defensive end Andre Carter signed with Washington.
TJ Slaughter was brought to fill the void of Peterson at linebacker, however I don’t see the 49ers winning many games this year. 5-11 seems like a good prediction to me.
This brings us to the Super Bowl runner up of a year ago, the Seattle Seahawks. A team that will challenge again but only because I expect their defense to dominate this year. Are you kidding me! Julian Peterson at linebacker with Russell Davis plugging the holes up the middle, and the drafting of Cornerback Kelly Jennings out of Miami with their 1st pick to replace Andre Dyson, then selecting that 252 lb pass rushing machine in Darryl Tapp from Virginia Tech! This team will be fun to watch on defense this year.
Sure the offense lost guard Steve Hutchinson to the Vikings and wideout Joe Jurevicius to the Browns, however Nate Burleson should fill in nicely at receiver with his 7 year contract and lets not forget they brought back touchdown machine Shaun Alexander for 8 years at $62 million. Seahawks are going 12-4 this year.
And last but not least, the St. Louis Rams. What can I say about the Rams, it sounds as though their pleased with the draft additions of 1st round pick, corner Tye Hill from Clemson, big catching tight end Joe Klopfenstein from Colorado at #2, and 3rd pick defensive tackle Claude Wroten out of Louisiana State. Claude along with massive size, brings elusive speed and quickness to a Rams defensive line.
Losing Adam Archuleta to the Redskins won’t hurt that much as Cory Chavous was added at the safety position as his replacement. Of note, defensive tackle La’Roi Glover and linebacker Will Witherspoon were signed in the off-season to shore up the defense. This should be a season where Steve Jackson bursts out and makes a name for himself as the Rams try to re-establish themselves as a top tier team where they were only a few seasons ago. prediction, Rams 9-7 this season.
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