This is the eighth and final post of a two-week series I will be doing, discussing every team by division and how I see their 2008 NFL season playing out. Today, we are discussing the NFC West division, which is populated by the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams. Let’s get started!

Seattle Seahawks
Matt Hasselbeck has always played solid in the regular season, and I don’t expect that to change in 2008. He seems to be battling a back injury, but is scheduled to start the season opener at Buffalo.
The Seahawks lost Shaun Alexander, who’s production slowly deteriorated in ‘06 and ‘07 after an MVP season in 2005. They did, however, acquire Julius Jones from the Dallas Cowboys. He will have an immediate impact on the offense’s production, and can easily take some of the pressure off of Matt Hasselbeck so he’s not getting hit hard as often.
The defense will be one of the best in the league in 2008. Patrick Kerney was easily the best defensive lineman in 2007, passing even Jared Allen of the Chiefs (now Vikings). I expect the secondary to have a strong year, but the linebackers and D-Lineman will be the ones who win or lose the division for the Seahawks. Lofa Tatupu and Patrick Kerney should both have extraordinary seasons. As far as the regular season goes, the Seahawks are a team to watch out for.

Regular Season Prediction: 10-6, 1st in NFC West, #4 seed in NFC playoffs

Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals are going old school and starting The Fossil, Kurt Warner, on opening day rather than Matt Leinart. I’m only gonna say one thing about Matt Leinart right now: trade him.
The Cards have not been good with Leinart at the helm, but when the Hermit comes on out of the hills, they seem to do excellent. Warner threw more touchdowns in the final 8 games last season than any other QB, including Tom Brady.
Edgerrin James is getting older, but is still a solid contributor to the offense, and you can safely bet on him rushing for 1,000+ yards this season, and 10-12 touchdowns. He is also one of the best catching backs in the league, and an pop moves on any defender on any day. If the offense stays in rhythm with him, and vice-versa, watch out for the Cardinals.
Larry Fitzgerald will have himself another sensational year, and I still haven’t heard much on the Boldin situation. If he does come back, the Cardinals will be the ones who win the NFC West, guaranteed. As long as Warner stays healthy, that is. If Boldin doesn’t come back, the Cards will still be in contention close to the end, and may even sneak out a few more wins than I’m giving them. But for now, I think Anquan Boldin is gonna get traded, which will hurt the offense, and cause them to miss the post-season.

Regular Season Prediction: 9-7, 2nd in NFC West, no playoffs

San Francisco 49ers
More and more people are jumping on the bandwagon of this team, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. One guy who hasn’t proven himself at the pro level (JT O’Sullivan) is expected to turn things around and win the division or a wild card berth. This makes absolutely no sense to me, if a former number 1 picks can’t get it done, what makes you think a guy who hasn’t proven anyone anything can? I may be wrong, but the chances of that on this particular topic are slim.
Frank Gore will be the offensive leader, and if they are going to finish above .500, his offensive teammates need to play at the level he’s played at the past two seasons. The wideouts are that offense are weak, and Isaac Bruce is the best one there. There were better options out there, but they neglected to be active in the off-season, and did nothing. Now, they are giving a brand new quarterback, who’s never played in San Fran before, no offensive receiving weapons, besides that of TE Vernon Davis. How he is expected to get them 10 wins again? Get real. Try half that.

Regular Season Prediction: 5-11, 3rd in NFC West, no playoffs

St. Louis Rams
The Rams are probably the most under-achieving team in the league. All the money they’re shelling out to the offense of Marc Bulger, Torry Holt, Steven Jackson, Orlando Pace, and they can only give them three wins?! That’s absolutely unacceptable.
Bulger signed a six-year deal prior to the 2007 season that would pay him bookoo bucks, and all he did was either get hurt or throw interceptions. I think Steven Jackson was hoping the Rams cut him so he could sign elsewhere with a team that is in a position to win sometime in the next decade. He doesn’t deserve to be on a team that does nothing but stink up the joint. He’s too good of a player.
The defense has nobody on it, and if they don’t do something in the next 3 days, they have no chance, because even if their offense does give the Rams the lead, the defense will give the lead up twice as fast.
It’s really disappointing to watch, and I hope they get their #### figured out, but I just don’t see it happening. In fact, I see them digressing from last year’s dismal 3-13 record. That’s hard to do.

Regular Season Prediction: 2-14, 4th in NFC West, no playoffs

Let me hear what you think! That’s a wrap on the previews, thanks for stopping by and reading what I have to say! Enjoy opening night tonight with Redskins versus Giants!

-Mike Greenspire

The NFC is a question mark as of right now, and as I see it, is completely up for grabs. So, I have decided to take the task of deciding the NFC’s team to beat this year. For the next week, I will be looking at each NFC team in alphabetical order to find out who really is the NFC favorite heading into the 2008 season.

I will rank each team’s chances on a 1-10 scale, 1 being the worst chance of winning the conference, 10 being the best chance of winning the conference. The team with the worst chance will get a 1, while the team with the best chance will get a 10.

Today I will be discussing the Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers and the defending NFC and Super Bowl Champions, the New York Giants.

Eagles
Donovan McNabb has to be the biggest question mark heading into the 2008 season. He has not played a full 16 game season in over 3 years, and he is very injury prone, so I would be wary of putting to much pressure on him. If he does his job, and doesn’t try to do extra, like running and avoiding defenders outside of the pocket, than the Eagles should be in fine shape.

Brian Westbrook is expected to incredible by all the experts, and I’m not saying I’m one of the experts, but I believe he will have a dynamic season as well. With plenty of weapons on the team, he’ll have plenty of chances to excel.

The defense has been “upped” incredibly after the addition of Asante Samuel. Mark my words, the Eagles pass defense will be much improved this year. They did good last year, but this year, you can expect them to only give up 210-230 yards per game through the air.

The Eagles play in a tough division, but out of the three major teams contending (New York, Philly, Dallas) they are the most weathered and experienced.

Scale: 6

Falcons
Matt Ryan cannot be expected to do much with this team. He has been given some good players, but he hasn’t had much time to acquaint himself with them.

The running game weakened with the loss of Warrick Dunn, but the addition of Michael Turner should cancel that out and then some. This guy is going to have a dynamic season as long as he stays healthy, and that O-Line can block better than they did in 07.

Joe Horn is still a Falcon after some doubts about him returning due to contract issues. I’d be glad he is back if I am a Falcon fan, because he is a solid offensive contributor, and fits right in with the Falcons.

The defense is questionable, but they could get by if Ryan, Turner, Horn and the rest of the offense can keep the chains moving long enough. I wouldn’t like resting the fate of the game in Atlanta’s defense.

The Falcons are too weak to contend in that division.

Scale: 2

49ers
The 49ers are incredibly questionable on offense. Alex Smith is still the starter after a 5-11 year last season. It’s disappointing to see a player that was expected to do as much as he was not compete.

Frank Gore has really slipped off the charts since becoming the NFC’s leading rusher in 2006. He had plenty of offensive production last year, rushing for 1,102 yards. I don’t know why people seem to think he isn’t as good as he was two years ago. He still has that heart and soul to play football inside, so don’t count him out of having another terrific season just yet.

The wideouts on that team are really bad. Isaac Bruce was good in his prime, but picking him up now, and expecting him to be the guy who does the best is not the best move that could have been made. If the 49ers were more active in the off-season pursuing UFA’s, then maybe they would be in the discussion, but I don’t think they are right now.

Vernon Davis is the best offensive receiving weapon on that team, and if they sink or swim in the passing game, it will be because he was thrown to or not thrown to.

Patrick Willis, Manny Lawson and Kentwan Balmer will make for a fearsome front 7 against offenses next year. If the offense performed as well as the defense, we’d be talking about double-digit wins here, not how badly they’ll finish in their division.

Scale: 4

Giants
Let me get something out of the way here real quick. The Giants WILL NOT repeat as Super Bowl Champs. They have a chance of winning the NFC East, but that‘ll be extremely tough fighting in that division. Just wanted to make myself clear on that.

Eli Manning had 5 incredible straight games last year, and I’m sure it will be hard for him to keep that kind of production up for another 16+. He’ll have his work cut out for him this year with that division being as tough as it is.

Plaxico Burress is still not participating at Giants training camp. He claims it is because of his ankle bothering him, not his contract. At this point, we have no choice but to take his word for it. Plax has always been a responsible and honest guy. I think whether or not they agree on a new contract, he’ll be playing all 16 games barring injury in 2008. Plaxico Burress is going to have a terrific season, and opposing defenses have a lot to watch out for because that is a tough guy to cover.

The defense was obviously weakened with the loss of Michael Strahan, but they do still have Osi Umenyiora, who had a monster of a season last year. Expect more of the same. They also picked up Kenny Philips, the safety from Miami in the draft, and he should be a solid player and pass defender. He is quick on his feet and has plenty of great players around him, so he doesn’t have to feel like the pressure’s on him.

The Giants have a solid shot of winning the NFC East, but they will need to play at the level they did at the end of last year. Only this time, they need to do it all year to keep up with Dallas.

Scale: 7

That’s all I got, let me hear your thoughts. Please keep the swearing at me to a minimum if you can. Thank you!

-Mike Greenspire