With Wilson traded, is the NFC West the LA Rams to lose?

How the NFC West looks now

While the LA Rams may not be blessed with an abundance of early 2022 NFL Draft picks, nor a significant amount of free salary cap funds to throw at free agents, the roster is already in pretty good shape. Rather than trading or outright releasing players due to salary cap constraints, the Rams are building upon their roster. That is the same roster that won Super Bowl LVI, so no wholesale changes are necessary.

That is not the case for their division rivals:

Arizona Cardinals

In the first eight games of the 2021 season, the Arizona Cardinals were dominant. Of course, the Cardinals would tank the remaining of the season. For some reason, the Cardinals start hot, but cannot sustain that same energy over the course of a full season.

Now going into the 2022 season, quarterback Kyler Murray and the team’s front office are not seeing eye to eye. The fourth-year quarterback is showing signs of becoming a distraction and I am beginning to believe that he will demand a trade sooner or later. His poor leadership will be the main reason why the Cardinals will be an average-at-best football team in 2022. I just can’t trust the Cardinals going into the 2022 season without collapsing. Until they prove otherwise, they have a small shot of winning the NFC West.

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San Francisco 49ers

With all the turmoil taking place with the quarterback position for the 49ers, it is tough to say how the 49ers will perform in 2022. The previous starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, is being forced out and replaced by second-year quarterback Trey Lance. In fact, the writing was on the wall when the 49ers traded up (three first-round and one third-round pick) to grab Lance with the third pick of the 2021 NFL Draft.

While Trey Lance is an extremely athletic quarterback with a powerful arm, he certainly did not get much playing time in 2021.  He is a dual-threat quarterback. That is, he can use his legs to run, or stand back and throw the football. But in my opinion, and due to some reports that have surfaced this offseason, he is not ready yet. The 49ers have one of the best running attacks in the Nation Football League, which will be extremely helpful for a young quarterback.

Still, Lance will be thrown onto the football field to lead and rally an offense that is built to win today.  Since he has little experience, it’s no great leap to believe that he will feel start feeling the pressure. I think the time has come that the Rams will finally control that match-up.