2014
NFC West
NFL Betting Preview
Odds and Predictions
The NFC West winner in the past nine seasons has gone on to win at least one playoff Game and make it to Four Super Bowls. ONCe again to no one’s surprise, that battle will be between the Seahawks and 49ers. The Cardinals and Rams are definitely not pushovers, but as seen in the last few years, the top two teams are too hard to surpass at this point.
Odds to win NFC West
courtesy of Sportsbook.ag
Seattle Seahawks +120
San Francisco 49ers +155
Arizona Cardinals +850
St. Louis Rams +850
The Seattle Seahawks are coming off a 13-3 season and a Super Bowl win. They have one of the best home-field advantages in the league and that automatically gets them to seven or eight wins. As expected, their team will be mostly the same compared to last year. Golden Tate is gone, but Percy Harvin should be healthy from the start of the season and makes this offense a little more dynamic. Marshawn LyNCh is on the wrong side of his career, but both Robert Turbin and Christine Michael are expected to help out. There’s no reason why Russell Wilson and company will be any worse than a season ago and the same can be said about their dominant defense. They lost a couple players, but that shouldn’t have too much of an effect on how they play.
The San Francisco 49ers weren’t far behind with 12 wins and losing in the NFC Championship Game by a mere six points in Seattle. However, they did make some moves, most notably in the receiving Game. Right off the bat, Michael Crabtree is expected to be ready for Week 1 so that’s an automatic boost. But the 49ers also grabbed Stevie Johnson, and that’s already in addition to Anquan Boldin and Vernon Davis. Colin Kaepernick now has multiple targets to look at, which could mean for the best offensive season yet for this team under him. Frank Gore, much like LyNCh, has seen better days, but they drafted Carlos Hyde and he’s a guy that can come in right away. The main problem for their defense will be the abseNCe of stud linebacker NaVorro Bowman after he tore his ACL in the team’s final Game last year. A number of guys will continue to fight for that spot throughout preseason. Even if the defense takes a step back, the offense could have the ability to start winning Games by itself.
The Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis Rams are not bad teams and would be legitimate contenders in almost any other division, but both of them lack the consisteNCy needed to win this one. Both the Cardinals and Rams have the ability to beat the Seahawks and 49ers, which we have seen multiple times over the last couple years, but winning against other competition is the bigger problem.
The Cardinals offense is expected to improve in Carson Palmer’s second season with the team and Andre Ellington is expected to have a bigger role. They also got Ted Ginn to spread the field a bit in the slot.
The Rams’ season relies solely on the health of Sam Bradford. This team drops a bit when Bradford isn’t in the offense, mostly in the passing Game.
And like the other teams, the Cardinals and Rams have some of the better defenses in the NFL. It will be up to their offenses to win more Games though.
It’s expected to be another tight battle to win the NFC West again, but as it stands, the Seahawks have a good shot at making it back-to-back titles. Russell Wilson is now in his third season as starter and that’s not a good thing for the other teams in this division.