NFC West preseason power rankings: Everything goes through San Francisco

Now that the Pac-12 is nothing but a sweet, sweet memory, the NFC West is the last true bastion of west coast football. It's a heavy burden – expectations for Very Weird Football will be sky high, but I'm confident that a division with the Seattle Seahawks can rise to the occasion.

And while it's a little early to hit publish on those Week 1 Power Rankings, it's never too early for a preseason power ranking. When there's a will, there's a way. Here's how the NFC West looks right now, which is subject to plenty of change this month and then a weekly update for the next six. It's football season, baby.

NFC West preseason power rankings

4. Arizona Cardinals

Give the Cardinals credit where it's due: they look like a team that could be scary in a couple seasons, which is a notable improvement from the last few. If Marvin Harrison Jr. ends up being as good as like, literally every person who watches football thinks he is, they're going to put up a bunch of points at the very least. Their defense doesn't look particularly good right now, but hey, it's early August. They finished last season with almost 2 wins less than their expected record, so it's not hard to imagine a six- or seven-win season in Arizona.

3. Seattle Seahawks

It's a tale as old as time: the Seahawks are heading into the season being widely talked about as the team that no one's talking about. How different this team looks under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald is the Big Question in Seattle this year, but Geno Smith's future there is probably 1a. No one really knows what to expect out of the Seahawks this year, which is good enough for this Rams blog to put them third. If they're good enough to steal a win or two from the 49ers, that'd be good enough for me.

2. Los Angeles Rams

My faith in Matt Stafford and Sean McVay hasn't been truly punished yet, so as long as they're around, I think the Rams' ceiling is going to be higher than Seattle's or Arizona's. The Puka Nacua injury is a bummer, but Cooper Kupp and Demarcus Robinson are good enough to keep the offense treading water in the meantime. Losing the best defensive lineman of this generation will probably be a problem at some point this year, but maybe they just drafted the next one out of Florida State!!! You can't say for sure that they haven't yet!!

1. San Francisco 49ers

The good news is that the 49ers are almost certainly on the back nine of this championship window: George Kittle is officially over 30 (gasps), Christian McCaffery's probably not rushing for 1400 yards again this year, and Brandon Aiyuk may not even be on the team by Week 1. The bad news is that George Kittle had one of the best seasons of his career last year, as did McCaffery, and Brandon Aiyuk is still on the team. And actually even more bad news is that they also have a great coach, a great quarterback, another great wide receiver, a great left tackle, and a great defense. But if you take away all of those positions, the 49ers look surprisingly vulnerable.