NFC West Divisional Team

Article by Rob Newell

 

Browsing through NFL.com I stumbled across an article by Dave Dameshek (he of the podcast fame) which floats the idea of putting together divisional teams, made up from a combination of the four teams within the division.

If this idea sounds familiar, then I am not surprised.  It is an idea we have hinted at ourselves a month or so ago, but in the article I found Dameshek concentrated on the NFC West, see link below.

(http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000497529/article/russell-wilson-legion-of-boom-headline-allnfc-west-team)

For those that don’t want to know his reasons for his selections but are interested in the players, I have listed the team he selected below by position.

QB   Russell Wilson

RB    Marshawn Lynch

WR   Michael Floyd

WR   Anquan Boldin

WR   Doug Baldwin

TE    Jimmy Graham

LT    Joe Staley

LG    Mike Iupati

C     Daniel Kilgore

RG    Alex Boone

RG    Jared Veldheer

 

DE    Michael Bennett

DT    Aaron Donald

DT    Calais Campbell

DE    Robert Quinn

OLB  Bobby Wagner

MLB  Navorro Bowman

OLB  Aldon Smith

CB    Richard Sherman

CB    Patrick Peterson

FS    Earl Thomas III

SS    Kam Chancellor

 

Return Benny Cunningham

Kicker Chandler Catanzaro

Punter Johnny Hekker

 

Obvious conclusion here and probably fairly so, is that the Seahawks provide a large proportion of this team.  Is this the strongest team the NFC West could throw out?  Certainly this team’s obvious weakness would be Wide Receiver, but given that last years Super Bowl’s teams didn’t really have a star Receiver between them, it shows you can win in this league if your offensive scheme is good enough, and your Running Back demands that you stack the box against him.

 

 

However he are a couple of things you could do to strengthen that position, select Larry Fitzgerald firstly, the man is on his way to Canton.  Secondly play Jimmy Graham as a WR and take Vernon Davis as a TE instead.  We all know Jimmy wants to be a WR anyway.  Also you could throw in Tavon Austin or Stedman Bailey into the mix, both of whom have the ability to produce that magical play either in the Receiver position or in the kick return.  Witness the fake return against the Seahawks last year.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePc_27wLyog

 

On defence hard to not take the Legion of Boom obviously, and Patrick Peterson is a player that even Antonio Cromartie admits is one of the best in the game.  Special mention to the Honey Badger though who would have a shot at making this team.  It is the front 7 where things get interesting, purely down to the strength of the defence’s in this division.

The Rams alone have one of the most fearsome front 7 in the league’s so what about Chris Long, Nick Fairley, James Laurinaitis.  The Niners by everyone’s admission have been decimated especially on defence yet still provide two players to this front 7 and Darnell Dockett should be considered to.

If the strength of a team is in the trenches, the OL and DL then things look good for the 49ers and Cardinals this year, so all you Niners naysayers may just want to hold fire for a minute.  Behind the OL Carlos Hyde must be licking his lips waiting to pound the rock.

 

In Special Teams Greg Zuerlein, also known as Legatron for me makes a strong case for that role.  But whoever you selected, if you go with Dameshek’s selections or some of my suggestions, this NFC West team would be frightening.  Is there another divisional team that would beat this lot.  I’ll leave that up to you all to discuss, I feel we could meet up for a beer and have a lot of fun deciding how these games would turn out, a bit like deciding who the next James Bond, Dr Who should be (or is that just me?)