The NFC West has been home to contenders for quite some time now.
Three of the division’s four teams have been to the Super Bowl at least once since 2013, while two of them have actually come away with the Lombardi Trophy. More recently, the 49ers, prior to last season, were arguably the NFC’s best team for several years running, and we’ve seen that the Rams have as high a ceiling as any team in football whenever they’re healthy. The Seahawks came on down the stretch of last season, thanks to a defense that rounded into form under new head coach Mike Macdonald and the Cardinals showed major improvement in their second season under Jonathan Gannon.
Heading into 2025, the division looks like it could be the best in the NFL. Each of the four teams has an over/under of at least 7.5 wins, a distinction that only the NFC North and AFC North share. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t potential questions or pitfalls surrounding each team.
In the space below, we’re going to explore some of the most important questions that face each team in the upcoming season.
Arizona Cardinals: Can Harrison make a Year 2 leap?
The top wide receiver prospect in last year’s draft had a rookie season that didn’t necessarily go as expected. Marvin Harrison Jr. had a significant role in the Arizona offense with 116 targets, but he ended the year with only a 53.4% catch rate, hauling in 62 balls for 885 yards and eight scores. He ranked 58th among wide receivers in yards per route run, and just 86th in yards per target.
Some of that was due to a role that kept him pinned to the outside of the formation, and often to the wide side of the field, and peppered him with contested targets far down the field. He had the seventh-most targeted air yards in the league and the second-most end zone targets, and he did create 20 explosive gains of 16 or more yards.
Arizona didn’t add any significant pieces to the offense this offseason, and that means it will again be counting on Harrison to be a major piece in the offense, working as a top-two passing-game option alongside tight end Trey McBride. The Cards will be betting on a big bounce-back in efficiency from the second-year wideout. If he can’t provide that bounce, it could hold back a passing game that needs to be better than it was a year ago.
Los Angeles Rams: What can Davante Adams bring to the table?
Giving Matthew Stafford a pair of wide receivers like Adams and Puka Nacua feels almost unfair. Giving him Nacua and Cooper Kupp did as well, but Adams brings even more to the offense than Kupp does because of his inside-outside versatility and better track record of being able to actually stay healthy through a full season. And Adams, despite being a year older than Kupp, seems to be staving off age-related decline better than his counterpart.
Despite playing just 14 games in a pair of decrepit offenses last season, he still ended the year with 85 catches for 1,063 yards and eight touchdowns. Catching passes from Stafford should bring out the best in him, and we’ve seen that whenever Stafford has a pair of high-level wideouts on hand, the Los Angeles offense is capable of reaching special heights.
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San Francisco 49ers: How will all the new pieces on defense come together?
The 49ers have seen a ton of turnover this offseason on the defensive side of the ball, from the coaching staff to the personnel. Defensive coordinator Nick Sorenson was swapped out for former Jets head coach (and former Niners defensive coordinator) Robert Saleh, whose defenses showed improvement with each passing season that he was in San Francisco.
But the Niners also just have an absolute ton of new players on that side of the ball. Stalwarts like Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga and Charvarius Ward all moved on in free agency, and the Niners added players like Tre Brown, Richie Grant and Jason Pinnock in free agency, Bryce Huff via trade, and Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, Nick Martin and CJ West in the draft.
That is a lot of change in one unit, but after the Niners finished 22nd in EPA per play allowed a year ago, it was probably necessary. Still, it could take some time for the defense to come together, and with an early season schedule that includes three division games in the first five weeks, that could make things pretty interesting.
Seattle Seahawks: What will the Sam Darnold experience look like?
Through the first 16 games of last year, it looked like Sam Darnold was going to be in line for a huge payday after completely turning his career around. He completed 68% of his passes while averaging 8.2 yards per attempt, with 35 touchdown tosses against just 12 interceptions. The Vikings had one of the best offenses in the NFL and Darnold looked like a totally new player.
But the final game of the regular season and Minnesota’s lone playoff game looked a whole lot different. He looked like he was seeing ghosts in the final NFC North title game against the Lions in Week 18, completing just 18 of 41 passes for 166 scoreless yards. Then he went 25 of 40 for 245 yards, a touchdown and a pick against the Rams while also taking an incredible NINE (9) sacks.
Darnold will be playing in a similar offensive system to the one he was in under Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota now that Klint Kubiak has taken over as the offensive coordinator in Seattle, but he won’t have the same type of infrastructure he was afforded with the Vikings. He has Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but not a duo like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison — and the Seahawks’ clear weaknesses along the offensive line will leave him vulnerable to pressure, which has been a major issue for him in the past. How he and the rest of the offense navigate that reality will obviously be important to watch.
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