NFC West: Ranking top 2019 storylines by team

Do we have four franchise quarterbacks ready for playoff football, or is the NFC West still the Rams and everyone else? We rank the best stories from one of the most polarizing divisions in football.

Are you ready for some football? The critical storylines for the 2019 season for each team were defined in an article from ESPN last month. The beat writers they employ for each team were asked to deliver what they believe is the biggest narrative for the team they cover. We read them all and now we’re ranking them.

As the offseason goes on and we close in on the 2019 NFL regular season, let’s tackle these stories division by division — today concerning the NFC West — and answer two questions.

1. Which team has the best story? (“Best” means whatever you want it to mean.)
2. Which story is least likely to become a dominant tale of the season?

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the NFC West in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals – All things Kyler Murray.
Los Angeles Rams – Can the Rams return to the Super Bowl?
San Francisco 49ers – Is Jimmy Garoppolo the franchise QB the team believes he is?
Seattle Seahawks – They must be better than the sum of their parts.

Best Storyline

Todd Salem: Here we go! A nice group of storylines are coming out of the NFC West. Ordinarily, I’d poo-poo the Rams’ story arc of attempting to make the Super Bowl. We’ve had this before. No duh — every good team has that goal in mind. But with Los Angeles, it is a bit different. The Rams are attempting to get back there after a demoralizing loss in which their potent offense was completely shut down. We need to see how Sean McVay and the offense are going to react.

That isn’t the best story, though. Instead, it is Arizona and all things Kyler Murray. I know this won’t be the best team in the division. The Cardinals probably won’t even be challenging for a playoff berth. In fact, perhaps ironically, all three of their NFC West peers could be playoff teams, and they won’t sniff that level. However, Murray is impossible to ignore.

Arizona upended its entire plan for him and new head coach Kliff Kingsbury. It dealt away potential franchise passer Josh Rosen in the process. Every play of Murray’s will be scrutinized all year, even after his team falls out of contention, which is not something that normally happens.

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Dan Salem: I’m calling this a mulligan because it’s a real toss up for me between two quarterbacks with very high ceilings. Both the 49ers and Cardinals present polarizing stories this season. Both teams are climbing out of the gutter and both have little notion of what their quarterback may give them. I suppose the slight edge goes to Arizona, because San Francisco at least got to see a successful Garoppolo before his injury. The Cardinals simply have wishful thinking to lean on.

If both teams’ quarterbacks are as good as everyone hopes, then what a division! Four teams with four Pro Bowl level quarterbacks. Unfortunately for Arizona and San Francisco, I’m not sure the success of their quarterbacks will change the pecking order in 2019. Someone else must get worse.

Least Likely Storyline

Todd Salem: You already know I like the stories for Arizona and LA. I also like the story offered for San Francisco around Jimmy Garoppolo. The spotlight will definitely be bright on him this season. If Garoppolo is the franchise passer the 49ers believe in, this could be a playoff team. If not, the roster could crash and burn around him. Those highs and lows exist for a lot of organizations, but with the Niners, we still know very little of their veteran quarterback.

That leaves Seattle as the low man on the totem pole. In a stacked division for storylines, the Seahawks may have finished last anyway, but this is inarguably a junk storyline regardless. I get the logic behind it. The writer was saying that, because Seattle lost a number of important players, the rest must step up into the void and become better as a full unit. It’s still a junk story and nothing that can be “followed’ throughout the season.

I’d have rather delved into the plausibility of a Seahawks rebuild. Was it smart to give all that money to Russell Wilson with a deteriorating roster around him? Should they have blown it all up? That is more interesting than seeing if younger players can step into increased roles. The latter is something that every single squad hopes to see.

Dan Salem: Considering that Los Angeles is the prohibitive favorite to win both the NFC West and NFC at large yet again, their story is a bit boring and deserves to “win” the honor of least likely to happen. I mean, of course, the Rams are going to be in the Super Bowl conversation.

Just because New England proved that great defense can stop even the best offenses, doesn’t mean Los Angeles lacks a great offense. It just means the best defensive mind of our generation was able to stop them. The Rams “win” this because their story is nonexistent. We don’t ask this about the Patriots? We assume it to be true.

Unlike you, I actually like the story in Seattle when I read between the lines. Russell Wilson is great and has been able to elevate his team beyond their potential on paper. This year will be the ultimate test because he got the big contract and the Seahawks are financially handicap because of it.

The actual story as written isn’t great, I agree. But the real story in Seattle is interesting. They keep overachieving, or so we say. But if they keep doing it, then it’s not overachieving at all. Its what the Seahawks are capable of.