LA Rams are not 2nd-fiddle to the Cards and 49ers in NFC West

The latest NFL Power Rankings are out for the 2021 NFL season, but if you expected the LA Rams to be the toast of the NFC Western Division, you would be wrong. That honor goes once more to the 6-10 San Francisco 49ers, a team that drafted its quarterback of the future in landing North Dakota State University QB Trey Lance. Despite that, CBS Sports NFL Analyst Pete Prisco is back on the record as loving the 49ers once more.  And that’s not all, as he projects the Arizona Cardinals ahead of the LA Rams as well.

Curiously, his ranking lists the 49ers as the sixth-ranked team in the NFL, the Cardinals as the seventh-ranked team, the LA Rams as the ninth-ranked team, and the Seattle Seahawks as the 12th ranked team. He justifies the rankings due to the NFL draft. Now, wait, the influx of new guys who have yet to take an NFL snap will make that much difference? It must be the NFL offseason folks.

That’s a funny perspective for many reasons, but one of the most difficult to understand is the pattern is constructed by simply inverting the worst of the NFC West, and calling it the best for 2021.  While there is an argument to be made that the 49ers will be improved in 2021, they are a team that drafted their quarterback of the future in the 2021 NFL Draft. Just ask the Miami Dolphins how that worked out for them in 2020? At the first sign of struggle or injury of Jimmy Garoppolo, here comes rookie Trey Lance. And then, the fun begins (for their opponents).

Power Rankings are created to well, generate views and attract readers. Sane power rankings get some views. Outlandish power rankings generate many views. Guess which category this one will fall under?

Last year, the LA Rams were coming off an injury-plagued season, which was used to justify predicting the Rams to fall to a 6-10 record and end up in the last place of the NFC West. This year the opposite is true. Analysts and pundits are using the 49ers’ injury-plagued 2020 season to predict an incredible rebound for them in 2021 to among the elite of the NFL.

So the LA Rams upgraded at quarterback, is coming off a season with the best NFL defense, and is considered… ninth-best in the league? And the 49ers and the Cardinals are the only two teams from 2020 without winning records listed above the LA Rams. To do so, one if not both teams will need to sweep the Rams in 2021. I don’t think that is happening. I haven’t done my own power ranking yet, but I guarantee that the 49ers and Cardinals will not outrank the LA Rams.