The NFC West is composed of the San Francisco 49ers, the Arizona
Cardinals, the St. Louis Rams, and the Seattle Seahawks, we preview the coming
season.
spread odds betting odds handicapping pick nfl
At The
Greek the clear favorite to win this division is the San Francisco
49ers listed at -140. The Arizona
Cardinals are a distant second at +250
and the remaining two teams are lined at +455.
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers are the team to defeat in the NFC West and are coming
off a season where they went 8-8, but six of the losses were by a touchdown or
less.
Their defense also ranked among the league leaders in several
categories and there are many reasons to believe they will be significantly
better this season.
The 49ers will play at Seattle in Week 1 of the NFL Schedule and
are installed as 3 point favorites with a 37 1/2 point total.
As a NFL betting note, keep in mind football lines favorites of two points are
less in divisional matchups are a remarkable 15-3 straight up and 14-3-1 ATS in
Week 1 spanning the past 10 seasons.
Seattle Seahawks
Seattle is coming off a 5-11 season. They are attempting
rebuilding the pride that saw them win four straight NFC West titles from 2004
to 2007.
New head coach Pete Carroll has transformed the roster to his
liking, but whether these new units and his overall team schemes will work
leads to a multitude of questions. Quarterback Hasselbeck will be leading an
offense that will be improved from last year's edition, but the defense still
has not had enough playing time to make any meaningful evaluation determining just
how good or bad they are right now.
Keep in mind too that Seattle is on a very poor 0-11 ATS run when
on the road facing strong offensive teams scoring 24 or more points per game
since 2007.
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are coming off back to back NFC West
Championships, but they have lost three critical players from that team that
lost to the Saints in last year's NFC Championship game. Most notable, in my
opinion, is the loss of defensive leader Karlos Dansby, who went the free agent
route to Miami. Then the retirement of QB Kurt Warner and WR Anquan Boldin, who
was traded to Baltimore. Matt Leinart was penciled in to take over the
quarterback position, but he has been a huge disappointment so much that he was
just released from the team.
He is now one of just four quarterbacks to be drafted in the
first round and throw for less than 4000 career yard and have more than 20
interceptions. The other three are Ryan Leaf, Heath Shuler, and David Klingler.
This means that unproven Derek Anderson will take over leadership
of the offense. With that many holes in the lineups to fill with unproven
players it is reasonable to see that Arizona will struggle to just play to a
.500 record.
St Louis Rams
The Rams are coming off a 1-15 record and there is little reason
to believe that they will be any better this season. Yet, they should be able
to improve on their 1-10 ATS record in September games given the schedule.
The Rams have won just six games in the past three seasons so
winning five this year would be a step in the right direction. Their win total
is posted at 4 1/2 -120 at Bookmaker. The years of the "greatest Show on
Turf" are largely memories, but there is renewed excitement with the drafting
of quarterback Sam Bradford.
There are two talented young offensive tackles in Rodger Saffold
and Jason Smith. They and two new tight ends will anchor a strong offensive
line. Steven Jackson returns at running back and is second in the NFL in yards
gain from scrimmage since 2005. Looking at this Week 1 matchup there is no
doubt the Rams will want to establish the running game.
Arizona will have trouble defending the run and are just 9-43 ATS when they allow 125 to 150 rushing
yards since 1992.