Rams, Seahawks or 49ers? Breaking Down the NFC West Race

Cliff is once again a man on an island with this one picking the defending Super Bowl champions. Meanwhile, I, as the 49ers fan on staff, I'm picking the Rams and the Rams are favored this year and they even became a bigger favorite after the Aaron Donald news just broke down. So I'll just allow you to kind of like get into it, picking the Seahawks. You also picked the Patriots too in the AMC East. So what's kind of like the thinking behind those two teams, I guess, repeating in their division? Sure. Yeah. And, you know, and my, my, my thinking is, is that, you know, with, I know, I know a lot of folks are, are really high on the Rams because of what Matthew Stafford continues to bring and what he brought last year. But, you know, I also know that, you know, that, that age is, is undefeated and, and, and the, the older he gets eventually, you know, you have to think to yourself, okay, they could not get to the Super Bowl last year based on the year that he had last year. Look at the numbers that he had. Is, is he, and it's not just him, it's, it's everybody around him. Are they going to be able to continue to produce those numbers? And my, my thought is that my thinking is that this is the year that it doesn't happen for them, that, that, that they don't duplicate that production. And that to me, that leaves the Seahawks. I think, I think much like the American league West, I think the NFC West is a two team race now, and, and I'm going to go, yeah, and I'm, that's, that's one of the reasons that I went with the Seahawks. Okay, so I got to explain myself, obviously, why I didn't go with my Niners. The way I look at it is, how can I co-sign one of the most turbulent off-seasons I have seen for any team in recent memory? Your owner gets arrested, you have Nick Bosa coming off of ACL, you have George Kittle coming off of Achilles, you have Brandon Ayuk, MIA, you have Kyle Shanahan in a car crash, you have Kyle Shanahan growing out a mustache, you have CMC with more tendinitis issues potentially in those Achilles, that it's for the Niners to win this, and I know my dad, I know my Niners, my dad is probably watching this and wondering, you're not picking the knives. Here's what I'll just say, it just, everything needs to break perfectly right for this team to still compete. And I'm not saying that it's impossible, it can. Kyle Shanahan is that good a coach, Brock Purdy is that good a quarterback in my mind, Nick Bosa, George Kittle, they come back healthy, that could all be great. But the fact that it needs to be so precise, so perfect, I didn't even mention Ricky Pearsall, their number one pick last year, or a couple years ago, also going down. Michael Williams, also dealing with injury. So that's where the Niners are. And two, to break down just in general why I believe in the Rams, I just look at, okay, you were in the NFC title game last year, like you mentioned, Matthew Stafford had a great season, the weapons around him had a great season, you add Miles Garrett, who is arguably the best player, just player, pure player, in the NFL to this team. Oh, and by the way, Aaron Donald just happens to walk back through that door. And I know he's been out for several years, he's been out, what, three years now at this point. But at the same time, Aaron Donald, I don't know if you follow him on social media, he is still a man amongst boys out there. He is still just out there, literally, dumbbell bench press, 200, 200. That is a full human on each side that Aaron Donald is lifting this guy. Yeah, he is uncommon. I just want to just end just saying the Cardinals, they're going to be bottom feeders. They are going for the number one overall pick next year. Anytime you're in a contract dispute with Jacoby Bursette, then you have to know that you're on hard time. But at least they have a first draft pick to chase after, right? Right, right, unlike the Clippers, unless we find they were skirting the salary cap their own way. So yeah, the Seahawks, of course, they are going to certainly have their opportunity as well. I'm not going to say that they're going to be a bad team. They're going to be up there. I'm going to say you might see three 10 plus win teams out of this one division. I don't know about that stretch.