Following the Super
Bowl and before the combine and the opening of Free Agency is as close as the NFL will get to an off season, yet
even in this apparent lull the NFL still throws up some stories, some of which
will have a large impact for fans of the NFC West. Below I bring you this news from the end of
the 2015 season to date.
Firstly the biggest change facing the division is
geographical and you could argue that the NFC West is now a lot more Western
that it was previously. The worst kept
secret in the last 12 months was that the Rams
were the team to kick-start the NFL relaunch of a Los Angeles franchise and after a 30-2 owners vote at the league
meeting the LA Rams are once again
appearing on the schedule. For those NFL
fans who remember the 1980’s and beyond this is a move that brings back a
feeling of familiarity.
For Rams fans who are sticking with the team
following the move from St Louis, it
turns out not everything is going to be familiar. This past week the Rams have announced the
release of Chris Long, James Laurinaitis
and Jared Cook, news that came as
quite a shock for fans and also to the players themselves. Since the relocation to LA was confirmed,
Long and Laurinaitis in particular have been used to sell the Rams to the LA
populous so it is a little strange that these two players in particular will
not be suiting it up in September. The
release of Cook is not as big a surprise, his time in St Louis did not set the
league on fire and although you can point to the obvious QB issues as a
contributing factor, there were many drops and disappointments that were a
source of frustration to many Rams fans.
Meanwhile up in the Pacific North West, the Seattle Seahawks found themselves for
the first time in a few years not required to play football in early February,
for one Seahawk in particular this lull proved to be too much. With just about 10 minutes remaining in Super
Bowl a picture was tweeted of a pair of cleats hanging from a phone line, a
simple image perhaps that says 1000 words.
Then again when have we ever known Marshawn
Lynch to use actual words, what we do know is that the Beast Quake era is officially over and all the responsibility will
now fall squarely on the shoulders of QB Russell
Wilson.
The Seahawks had better do a better job of
protecting him going forward, as last year the sight of Wilson scrambling, not
through choice but because the opposing DL was coming swarming through the
middle of the Seahawks OL was commonplace.
Wilson has the talent and in Christine
Michael and Thomas Rawls there
are some good Running Backs still on this team, but Marshawn these last few
years when healthy has been arguably the most productive in the league and that
is a large hole to fill on a permanent basis.
Now on to the team that has cause to the busiest in
the West, the San Francisco 49ers,
who have announced that their new head coach is Chip Kelly, after Jim
Tomsula was one and done in San Fran.
This was not a surprise to anyone and it's hard not to feel that Tomsula
was a patsy who was a buffer to enable the team to move from Jim Harbaugh to another recognised
coach who news doesn't have the pressure of having to directly replace the
success that Harbaugh enjoyed. Mind you
$14million will make most people happy to be a patsy.
Right from the press conference though you could
sense that the Niners had a coach who knew what he was about, in direct
contrast to Tomsula last year. Kelly is
also it seems on a mission to make nice as much as possible, after many
accusations of possible racism to lack of emotional intelligence whilst in Philadelphia. Kelly handled the many questions regarding
the 49ers QB situation by ensuring whenever one was mentioned he included the
other in his answer. Several stories
have linked Kaepernick to Kelly but
many observers feel that Blaine Gabbert might
be the better fit for Kelly’s offensive schemes.
The Niners do have 12 picks in the upcoming draft
including the number 7 overall, as well as a ton of salary cap space which may
make Free Agency exciting so despite all the bluster, there may be a rookie QB
coming to San Francisco to compete for the starting job yet. Whoever is under centre they will have a new
toy at a Wide Receiver as Eric Rodgers
has been signed from the Canadian
Football League where he was the leading receiver last year. At 6ft 2 and fast, Rodgers could be a welcome
addition to what was a largely unproductive unit last time around.
As for the Arizona
Cardinals, they have been mainly quiet since the NFC Championship game
beating by the Panthers, but under
coach Arians you can be sure they
will be back to compete next year.
Rookie David Johnson could be
set to breakthrough to real star status to complement one of the most
aggressive passing attacks in the league.
They have just recently signed an option for a former Aussie Rules player to try out as a
Centre, so mane the land Down Under
is the next resource for these Western teams.
