In case you hadn't noticed, there's a bit of a cold war going on in the NFC West right now, made that much colder after the Seattle Seahawks hoisted the Lombardi Trophy on the San Francisco 49ers' home turf at Levi's Stadium.
The rest of the division—well, at least two of the other teams—now desperately find themselves trying to dethrone the Hawks, which won't be easy. Seattle is set up to be dominant for a very long time, unfortunately.
Aside from the rebuilding (again) Arizona Cardinals, both the Niners and Los Angeles Rams made substantial offseason moves to keep pace with the Seahawks.
In observance of the ongoing arms race, CBS Sports' Jordan Dajani predicts nothing but a similar outcome for the NFC West in comparison to last year when everyone but the red birds finished with at least 12 regular-season wins.
Except there's a pretty big change to acknowledge.
Rams topple Seahawks in NFC West standings prediction, 49ers finish 3rd (again)
Using recent over/under predictions for all four squads, it's probably no surprise Dajani has Arizona staying in the basement while falling short of the projected 3.5 wins on the year.
San Francisco, Seattle and L.A. are where the true competition for the division crown will reside, but in light of Los Angeles' blockbuster pickup of the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, defensive end Myles Garrett, the Rams wind up securing the division title and dethroning the Seahawks, at least in terms of NFC West standings:
- Los Angeles Rams: 12-5
- Seattle Seahawks: 11-6
- San Francisco 49ers: 10-7
- Arizona Cardinals: 3-14
Travel, understandably, appears to be the reason the 49ers will scuffle a bit more than their two in-division counterparts, according to Dajani. And that's not a bad take—the Niners will set an NFL record for most mileage traveled in a single season, and two international games (one against the Rams in Week 1 in Melbourne, Australia) don't help matters on that front.
Perhaps it's good the rest of the league is circling both the Hawks and Rams to battle it out for the division, leaving the Niners to face less pressure from pundits and analysts in that regard.
Still, San Francisco fans wouldn't feel any better about L.A. seizing the NFC West crown instead of Seattle either, so that part of the prediction still stings.
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