What’s up with the messy NFC West? Insider weighs in

On By Littum

With the ups and downs the Seattle Seahawks have faced thus far, it might feel a little strange that a win this weekend would move the team into a share of first place in the NFC West.

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But that is the case when the 5-5 Seahawks host the first-place Arizona Cardinals (6-4) on Sunday at Lumen Field.

The Cardinals are coming off an abysmal 4-13 season, but have taken advantage of their NFC West peers’ slow start to be perhaps the most surprising division leader heading into Week 12. The Seahawks, Rams and 49ers each enter the week in a three- way tie for second.

So what exactly is happening with the NFC West? Is it just a matter of teams playing against each other? Or is it just a down year for the group?

Bump and Stacy asked the FOX football analyst and former NFL player on Friday Bucky Brooks for his thoughts on the state of the NFC West.

“I think it’s obviously really competitive, but you have teams in transition,” he said. “You’ve got the Seattle Seahawks in transition with a new head coach (Mike Macdonald). You’ve got the Arizona Cardinals (in their) second year under Jonathan Gannon. (The) Los Angeles Rams are trying to turn their roster around with a bunch of young guys playing in defense while still holding on to kind of an older offense with (quarterback) Matthew Stafford and (wide receiver) Cooper Kupp and those guys. And then the San Francisco 49ers are fighting a Super Bowl hangover where they’re very disappointed about not being able to do it against the Chiefs the second time they faced them in the Super Bowl.”

While no one in the division looks like a true Super Bowl contender record-wise, the four teams have a combined winning record of 21-19 and none have a losing record individually.

“It’s not necessarily that there isn’t talent,” Brooks said. “I just think you’ve got a division that in a year or two will be one of the best in football, but it’s going to take us time to get there. So if you have an opportunity to win it, you want to win it now while you’re still rebuilding and rebuilding your roster into things you hope will be bigger in the future.”

Schedule shift

With the division looking like it could come down to the final week and potentially even tiebreakers, here’s a look at each team’s remaining strength of schedule, their division record, division games remaining, toughest overall game remaining and easiest overall game remaining. Strength of schedule rankings are via Tankathon.

Arizona Cardinals (6-4)

SOS: 19th (.479 opponent winning percentage)

Division record: 2-0

Remaining division games: at Seahawks, vs. Seahawks, at Rams, at 49ers

Toughest overall remaining game: At Vikings

Easiest Total Games Remaining: Vs. Patriots

Seattle Seahawks (5-5)

SOS: 9th (.549)

Division record: 1-2

Remaining division matches: vs. Cardinals, at Cardinals, at Rams

Hardest Overall Remaining Match: vs. Vikings

Easiest total games remaining: at Jets

Los Angeles Rams (5-5)

SOS: 11th (.548)

Division record: 2-1

Remaining division games: at 49ers, vs. Cardinals, vs. Seahawks

Hardest Overall Remaining Match: vs. Bills

Easiest total games remaining: at Jets

San Francisco 49ers (5-5)

SOS: 3rd (.620)

Division record: 1-3

Remaining division matches: vs. Rams, at Cardinals

Hardest Overall Remaining Match: vs. Lions

Easiest Total Games Remaining: Vs. Bears/at Dolphins

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player at the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10am-2pm, or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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