The San Francisco 49ers finished their 2025 season with a 12-5 record. In any of the other three NFC conferences, that would have been good enough for a division title, but that wasn't the case in the NFC West, where the Niners finished third.
This just goes to show how insanely competitive the NFC West was in 2025 with the Seattle Seahawks winning the division at 14-3 and the Los Angeles Rams coming in second with the same record as San Francisco.
Linebacker Fred Warner recognized the NFC West was by far the toughest division in the league and stated as such during a recent appearance on the St. Brown Podcast.
Warner was asked by the St. Brown brothers if the NFC West is the best division in football. Warner didn't hesitate to say that it was:
"Oh yeah, easily. That's not even a question," Warner said. "This year we had three teams who were playing for the one seed in our division."
Fred Warner doesn’t hesitate when asked if NFC West is football’s best
It's hard to argue with Warner there. The Niners, Rams, and Seahawks all fought to the end of the season for the No. 1 seed in the NFC with Seattle ultimately claiming it, and from there, going on to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. Three of the final NFC teams left standing hailed from this division.
... and then, of course, there are the Cardinals, who were one of the worst teams in the entire league.
Amon-Ra St. Brown asked about the Cardinals, and Warner dropped a hilarious analogy on San Francisco's division rival.
"You ever see that meme with the dragons where it's the three dragons and then you got the dragon over there with his tongue out and the googly eyes? Unfortunately, that's the Cardinals right now."
St. Brown asked Warner this question because, in his opinion, the NFC North is the best division in football. He said that his division doesn't have a dragon with its tongue sticking out and googly eyes and, to his credit, he does have a point. The Cardinals definitely drug down the NFC West, but considering three teams were fighting for the top seed in the conference until the bitter end, Warner feels like he'd win this battle in most people's eyes.