One Sneaky Big Question for Every NFC West Team Heading into the 2020 Season
What’s up guys! Sunday football is just two days away, so let’s cram in a few more sneaky big questions for every team in the NFC West, a division that had three teams finish above .500! Tomorrow we’ll check back in with the AFC East.
Arizona Cardinals
Q: Are we sure Kliff Kingsbury is a good coach?
Kliff Kingsbury is being talked about like the next coming of McVay and Shanahan and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Kliff seems like a great guy and the players seem to really take to him, but let’s check out his head coaching resume for a second. As the head coach at Texas Tech, Kingsbury held a career record of 35-40 and a conference record of 19-35. The reason Kingsbury is the head coach in the National Football League is because the 2015 Red Raider’s offense ranked 2nd in the nation and 5th in scoring offense in 2016. Who else was a part of those dominant Texas Tech offenses? Patrick Mahomes. Now, I’m sure Kingsbury had a big part in Mahomes’ development, but Pat is the best arm talent I’ve ever seen play the position. Jeff Fisher would still be in the league if Mahomes was his quarterback.
In his first year as HC of the Cardinals, Kingsbury went 5-10-1, but here were the five teams he defeated in 2019:
Week 5: 3 point victory @ the 2-14 Bengals
Week 6: 1 point victory vs. the 7-9 Falcons
Week 7: 6 point victory @ the 4-12 Giants
Week 15: 14 point victory vs. the 6-10 Browns
Week 16: 14 point victory @ the 11-5 Seahawks
The Cardinals are getting a ton of hype as a potential Wild Card team this year, but look at the teams they beat last year. The only signature win that Kliff can point to is beating Russell Wilson at Century Link. Three of his other four wins were against terrible teams by less than a touchdown.
I totally understand why everyone is picking the Cardinals to sneak into the playoffs, but can we just pump the breaks a little? The NFC West is the toughest division in football, their defense is still going to be terrible again, and I question whether Kingsbury is that great of a coach. I could see Arizona being a breakout team…just not this year.
Los Angeles Rams
Q: Are we sleeping on these guys?
The 2019 Rams were definitely nursing a Super Bowl hangover last year. At the start of the season, the Rams looked like they hadn’t skipped a beat, but by mid-October they were 3-3. With the emergence of San Fran, Seattle getting Jamal Adams, and the Cardinals creating a Kyler ➡️ Hopkins connection, Los Angeles is the least ‘sexy’ team in the NFC West this year. So the question has to be asked…are we sleeping on the Rams?
Coming into the 2020 season, the Rams have a ton of question marks surrounding their team. Questions that include: Can this offensive line be salvaged? Will Jerad Goff get a third contract? Why are we paying 1/4 of our salary cap to players no longer on our roster? Those questions are extremely intimidating, but what does this team have? Continuity. The Rams have a massive advantage over teams like the Cowboys, Giants, and the Browns because these players know the system and they’ve been together for more than just a weeks worth of practices and a few ZOOM calls.
In McVay’s three seasons as head coach, last year was his worst season and they still finished 9-7. This team was still 7th in the NFL in Yds/G, 4th in the league in Pass Yds/G, and 11th in PPG in 2019. In a year with so much uncertainty, I think teams like the Rams are being slept on for no good reaon. This offense has a ton of weapons, they’ve got some playmakers on defense, and McVay at the controls. Everyone has been so quick to turn the page on LA this year, as most have the Seahawks and 49ers coming out of this division, but don’t sleep on the Rams this year.
Seattle Seahawks
Q: How will Seattle fare without the 12th man this year?
This question can be posed to several teams like the Vikings, Bills, and Saints, but I am most interested to see how the Seahawks will fare without their fan base in 2020. Seattle has already announced that their first three home games will be played without fans and then they’ll revert to about 20% capacity.
Imagine being a quarterback in the 2010’s getting off the bus in Seattle against the Legion of Boom and thinking, “God, the next three hours are gonna blow!” Seattle has the loudest, craziest, and most passionate fan base in the NFL and this year the Seahawks will be without the biggest home field advantage in the league.
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Every athlete is different, but I think the majority of players feed off the crowds, especially when it’s 3rd and 8 with 2:24 to go and the entire stadium is going nuts. How will it affect the player’s motivation? Will these games feel more like a practice than an actual game to the players? Whatever the case may be, I think Seattle and New Orleans are the two franchises most impacted by the lack of fan presence. I’m very interested to see how the absence of fans will affect games across the NFL, but especially in Seattle.
San Francisco 49ers
Q: Why is nobody mentioning that Jimmy G has a dead cap hit of just $2.8 million next offseason?
This stat sounds borderline unbelievable, but the 49ers have made it to the NFC title game four times over the last nine seasons. Plain and simple, the 49ers are a smart organization. John Lynch has done an incredible job as general manager, his resume as GM is as follows:
- Signed Kyle Shanahan
- Signed Richard Sherman
- Signed Dee Ford
- Found George Kittle in the 5th round
- Grabbed Fred Warner in the 3rd round
- Took Deebo Samuel in the 2nd
- Found Raheem Mostert off the scrap heap
- Got Trent Williams for a 3rd and 5th rounder
- Replaced DeForest Buckner with Javon Kinlaw, saved a ton of cap
- Got the best player in the 2019 Draft in Nick Bosa
All these moves resulted in him taking home NFL Executive of the Year in 2019, but he’s got a tough decision to make after the 2020 season. What do we do with Jimmy Garoppolo? Garoppolo is entering his 7th year in the NFL and has just 26 career starts to show for it. Jimmy G has fewer starts than Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Baker Mayfield! If I had to rank every starting QB in the league 1-32, I’d say Jimmy falls somewhere in the 16-18 range.
I have the same concerns with Jimmy as I do with Ryan Tannehill. If this team starts out down 17-3 or 20-7, can he sustain drives and keep them in games. In the playoffs against Minnesota and Green Bay, San Francisco got out to big leads and Jimmy was just able to manage the game and coast the rest of the way. However, in the Super Bowl shit started hitting the fan in the 4th quarter after the 49ers blew a 20-10 lead with six minutes left. He was not able to throw the ball downfield and lead his team back, as they ended up losing by double figures.
The big question for SF fans this season is what will management do with Garoppolo this the offseason if they go 7-9 or 8-8. If they had cut him this year, Garoppolo’s dead cap was nearly $20 million, but in 2021 his dead cap drops to just $2.8 million! Another sneaky question that ties into this…what if Dak Prescott and the Cowboys can’t agree on a long term deal? Could we see another Kirk Cousins scenario? This team is built to win right now, so no I don’t think Jimmy will get released next summer. However, it’s definitely something to monitor next offseason if this team has a disappointing 2020.
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