Predicting The Outcome Of Every Division - NFC West

To help pass the time between now and the start of training camp, I thought it would be fun to do a regular season and playoff simulation of the 2023-2024 NFL Season until a Super Bowl winner is crowned. I divided the teams into their respective divisions and I will be posting a new article each day for each division, plus each round of the playoffs. That amounts to 12 articles that I can milk out of one idea in the dead of the offseason, which makes my job so much easier. I’ll be sure to link my previous predictions below.

Previous Predictions

AFC East

NFC East

AFC West

So without further ado, here are my predictions for every division. Continuing with...

The NFC West

The San Francisco 49ers run like a well-oiled machine. When you have an elite defense along with an offense that features George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, and Brandon Aiyuk, you don’t need your quarterback to be extraordinary. He just needs to have two hands on the steering wheel and turn on cruise control. They have all the pieces necessary to make a Super Bowl run in 2023, so long as the injury bug doesn’t haunt them.

The Seattle Seahawks are a bit of an enigma. Nobody expected Geno Smith to have the kind of season he did last year. The Seahawks were pleasantly surprised and rewarded him with a 3 year, $75 million contract. The question is, can he maintain that level of play? Drafting Jaxon Smith-Njigba will certainly help. If Geno plays up to his contract, then the Seahawks are playoff contenders in the NFC with the amount of weapons they have on offense.

After winning the Super Bowl in 2021, the Los Angeles Rams have been on a downwards spiral. Most of the pieces from their Super Bowl run are gone, and Jalen Ramsey was traded to the Miami Dolphins for a 2023 3rd round pick and TE Hunter Long. They still have Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp, along with a fully healthy Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay calling the plays. So you can’t completely count them out, but it does feel like the beginning of the end for Sean McVay in L.A.

Somebody’s gotta bring up the rear, and this year it’s the Arizona Cardinals. They’re gonna be without QB Kyler Murray for a good portion of the year, who suffered an ACL tear late last season. Meanwhile, the defense lost two key pieces in free agency with DL Zach Allen signing with the Denver Broncos and CB Byron Murphy joining the Minnesota Vikings. On the plus side, this will be a good opportunity for new GM Monti Ossenfort to evaluate Jonathan Gannon’s coaching ability without a talented quarterback there to bail him out.

The Projected Standings

1. (15-2) San Francisco 49ers

2. (11-6) Seattle Seahawks

3. (3-14) Los Angeles Rams

4. (1-16) Arizona Cardinals

Next up: AFC South