Can the Rams finally be a player in the NFC West?
By Steve Rivera
Will Los Angeles Rams fans finally see this team make some noise inside their division? Maybe not in 2017, but that time isn’t far off.
The Los Angeles Rams hung in for a bit in the NFC West last season. It was ugly after the first four games of 2016, but for a while, the Rams were atop the division with wins over Seattle in the Coliseum, and a win against the Cardinals in Glendale.
They were 3-1.
Hope would spring eternal, then it would spring a leak.
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When taking a look at the NFC West, outside of the Seattle Seahawks, no one really grabs your attention. As good as Seattle is, they likely aren’t running away with the division, though they remain the odds-on favorite. After that, it could be anyone’s best guess. The Arizona Cardinals aren’t striking fear in anybody either. Carson Palmer is in his twilight, and after an offseason of a defensive bloodletting, they are trending flat, if not down.
As for the two 2016 bottom feeders, both Los Angeles and the San Francisco 49ers have an opportunity to make some noise. As a matter of fact, unless the Cardinals capture some unlikely lightning in a bottle, whoever finishes second to the Seahawks could be up for grabs.
No one, not Arizona, LA, or San Francisco is going to be a strong contender to become the outright standard bearer of the NFC West, but while Seattle hasn’t necessarily come back to the pack, the other three teams are closer to the middle than they aren’t.
But can the Rams finally make a push to .500?
Can Los Angeles pick up, or a better question is, can they find four more wins on top of what they did last season?
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That’s a tall, if not improbable order. But last year ended with such a thud, and accusations of a team quitting, that a year where optimism may be infectious over 16 games bodes well for better than 4-12.
That said, the arc of this franchise has a much different feel than say the one in Arizona. The Cardinals are old, the Rams are not.
Neither LA or San Francisco will win or challenge for a division title in 2017. But the view from where the Rams are feels infinitely more positive than the one in Phoenix.
In the NFC West, the future is with the youth.
That’s something on the wane in Arizona, and something abundant in Los Angeles.