National Football League

Ranking the biggest concerns for each NFC West team in 2021

Updated Aug. 25, 2021 6:48 p.m. ET

By Randy Mueller
Special to FOX Sports

As we head to the backstretch of the 2021 NFL preseason, I need to send up a cautionary balloon to fans everywhere: Don’t hit the panic button to blow up your team based on preseason results.

More than ever before, teams are handling preseason games with kid gloves in an effort to have healthy frontline players for Week 1 of the regular season. But that’s not to say your team doesn’t have issues keeping its decision-makers awake at night.

To that end, this is the last of eight deep dives into the divisions around the NFL, with a specific look at potential problems that would keep me up if I were GM of each team.

For a look at my analyses of the other divisions:

AFC: North, South, East, West

NFC: North, South, East

Now on to the NFC West, which I think is the NFL’s toughest division.

ARIZONA CARDINALS

Stuck in a rough-and-tumble division, the Cardinals made a push this offseason to upgrade their experience and leadership in an effort to finally get over the hump. Finishing 8-8 last year put them on the edge of relevance; had they been in their old division, the NFC East, where they resided for many years, they might have been the cream of the crop.

Former Houston Texans DE J.J. Watt and WR A.J. Green from the Bengals are key acquisitions for the 2021 season. I have zero issues with these two moves, but health has been a concern for both veterans in recent years. I’m just not sure if the Cardinals have enough young, ascending players to allow them to compete over a 17-game schedule. Sometimes quantity is needed just as much as quality.

I view this year’s Cardinals squad as one that thinks it has arrived before the rest of us have seen the evidence. On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with a little confidence.

My biggest concern, though, is the player most outsiders view as the Cardinals’ biggest strength. QB Kyler Murray has become a popular fantasy football selection. He puts up offensive numbers in bunches in head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s pass-first, spread system.

But if I am Arizona GM Steve Keim, my worry has always been the same with Murray: The NFL is a big man’s league, and little guys tend to eventually get hurt.

Murray, who no doubt has elite quickness and agility, is about 5-foot-9 and weighs around 200 pounds. At that size, can he stay healthy?

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For my money, Murray tends not to be the same QB in the final third of the season. That has been a pattern for Kingsbury’s teams going back to his days coaching in college. The Cardinals have shown a trend toward fading down the stretch.

Durability and availability go hand-in-hand, and even with their philosophy of, "We can get the ball out quickly on offense," I’m not sold. To that end, Keim hedged his bet this year by signing veteran QB Colt McCoy as Murray’s primary backup. I think this was a much-needed step, as McCoy, with his experience and perspective, should help Murray.

Because of the style Arizona plays on offense, the Cardinals’ defense is often under the gun. Last year, it ranked among the top 10 in the league in most plays defended. The defense held its own by being aggressive, blitzing just under 40% of the time (top-five in the league) and finishing 11th in third-down conversions allowed.

Overall, this is an underrated defense and one that has some depth. I love the re-signing of three-time captain DT Corey Peters, even though he might not be at full strength until later in the year due to a patellar tendon tear last season. Peters is one of the better run defenders in the league and gives the team options for the back half of the season.

My concerns for this team are real but not insurmountable. Based on Arizona's pattern, I don’t think we will get answers until after Thanksgiving. Let’s hope, for the sake of Cardinals fans, this team can break the trends of the past and create a future as a contender.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

The Seahawks had no shortage of drama to deal with this offseason. I’m referring mainly to the passive/aggressive — and somewhat out of character — public undressing of the upper floors at Seahawks headquarters by Russell Wilson.

After putting his team on blast, Wilson has backed off most of the comments, along with the attention he created. He has tried to return to his "Go Hawks" persona the past couple of months. The story will be revisited down the road, but for now, GM John Schneider has other concerns.

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Having settled one long and public contract squabble with defensive playmaker Jamal Adams, another is still simmering with "hold-in" Duane Brown, the veteran tackle who once again is not happy with his pay rate.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. Setting club precedent is more important to the Seahawks’ front office than it is to head coach Pete Carroll, who is probably in the twilight of his tenure. Brown, who turns 36 next week, doesn’t have many cards to play, so the Seahawks might be satisfied letting the situation play out — unless Carroll interjects a different mindset.

This team is paper-thin in a lot of areas. What would concern me, even more than the lack of preseason results from the Seahawks, is with almost no frontliners playing in these games, how can they pump up their intensity before the opener?

The Seahawks are one of few teams that elected not to do joint practices this preseason. For most coaches, such practices have been a valuable way to script, compete and raise emotions while getting their work done and not risking injury from tackling or finishing to the ground. I think the rewards far outweigh the risks.

Not that fans want to hear this, but the joint practices have rendered most preseason games like JV scrimmages. My worry is that the lack of real competition will delay the development of some teams, particularly among frontline players.

In my opinion, there is no substitute for practicing pad level, footwork and hand placement at full speed, especially in the trenches. You can only get that in pads, and sometimes competing against players outside your group is best.

Even with holding out regulars, the Seahawks have already lost two players — LB Ben Burr-Kirven and WR John Ursua — for the season to knee injuries, reducing their depth in key areas.

I also have two roster issues with the Seahawks, the biggest of which is at backup QB.

This team is a Russell Wilson sprained ankle away from disaster on offense. I see no backup who can remotely carry this team at QB for a three- or four-week period. If I were Schneider, I’d be kicking the tires on a player such as Jaguars QB Gardner Minshew, who is said to be available, even if it means giving up a draft pick. I know for a fact that the Seahawks have been trying for a couple of years to upgrade at this position. This preseason has exposed that need once again.

The other issue is the same one most GMs around the league are trying to address: lack of depth at defensive tackle and corner. The Seahawks’ group needs to pump up the volume at those two spots to be ready for a 17-week grind. That, however, is much easier said than done.

LOS ANGELES RAMS

NFC West teams made bold moves to shore up both short- and long-term issues at quarterback. If I were keeping score, I’d rate the Rams' move to trade Jared Goff for former Lions QB Matthew Stafford as the outright winner. The trade was a no-brainer for L.A., even with the amount of future capital the team had to give up.

The Rams moved from the bottom third at the quarterback position into the top 10 and, with one of the more dynamic offensive schemes in football, could soon be higher than that.

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That said, staying at the top requires drafting impact players. You need first-round picks to acquire sustainable, top-shelf talent. You also need rookie contracts to allow you to compensate other key players in the team-building process. Regardless of the actions of some teams this offseason, dead money matters on a team’s salary cap.

My concern for the Rams is their philosophy. Although they have acquired some difference-makers, their thinking needs to change somewhat to allow them to draft "the next stars." At their current rate, 70% of their money is going to be allocated to 5% of their players. They have to make better financial decisions.

Because of these finances, the Rams' biggest weakness is a real lack of depth. I mean razor-thin, bologna-sandwich-thin lack of depth. The Rams have zero margin for error. To comply with salary-cap regulations, they had to let more good players go than any team other than the New Orleans Saints.

I think GM Les Snead and his group have done a masterful job identifying and drafting developmental talent. I’m just not sure if they can continue to pull rabbits out of hats to satisfy the ever-changing decisions made by head coach Sean McVay.

McVay’s latest moves include a number of changes to his coaching staff, which has been turned upside down since the team went to the Super Bowl in 2018. Nobody can argue with McVay’s results or the fact that he is supremely confident in his own abilities, but my question for this year is: Can he overcome the number of changes to the coaching staff and the roster together?

Change is a given at the NFL level, but I get the impression that McVay thinks he can make up for it all by himself. If I’m the other key people in the Rams organization, I might be concerned about how full McVay’s plate is.

If — and this is a big if — the Rams can stay away from any key injury, Stafford should allow them to compete for an NFC West title.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

No team gambled more to move up in the draft than the 49ers, and no team did so for a player, QB Trey Lance, with such a limited body of work. I can’t remember a team mortgaging its future like this in the past 20 years.

Of course, it's the COVID-19 era, which has severely limited games and scouting. There is a documentary to be made on how this all came together for Lance. Time will tell if the moves to get him turn out to be an investment based on sound logic or pure panic.

But my question goes deeper: Did the 49ers need to do it?

We all know QB Jimmy Garoppolo has been injury-challenged and has missed his share of time during his career. That no doubt was a main reason for trading up to get the North Dakota State QB with the third pick in the draft.

Beyond that, I think the 49ers' decision-makers were convinced they did not have the right guy at QB after last season. Jimmy G is a different player when under pressure; he tends to make bad decisions and crucial mistakes late in downs.

Because of Garoppolo’s deficiencies, head coach Kyle Shanahan had to alter his playcalling and game management. Shanahan also had to make adjustments to protect both Garoppolo’s health and his blind spots.

With a limited ceiling on the QB's development, the 49ers knew they had to make a bold move to replace Garoppolo.

In Lance, the 49ers think they have a player with not only more athleticism and a greater ability to make throws outside the pocket but also a quarterback who demonstrates poise under pressure. Lance has a skillset that gives Shanahan more flexibility with what plays he can call and what his QB can do.

Now, the question is how quickly the offensive staff can get Lance up to speed on the system. He clearly lags behind Garoppolo on the learning curve and experience level. I do not think the 49ers will rush him. They are smartly playing the long game.

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Because of their adept bookkeeping, the 49ers have cap room and should be credited for such. As a result, this team had the luxury of being able to re-sign key parts of its roster. The Niners managed to keep Trent Williams at tackle and Fred Warner at linebacker, and they get back injured players from what was a devastating 2020 injury-wise.

The Niners were able to minimize change. Defensive Player of the Year candidate DE Nick Bosa is back healthy, and the team has added Samson Ebukam, Mychal Kendricks and Maurice Hurst for depth on defense. The 49ers' roster is deep, while other teams in this division are depth-challenged.

I think that is a key element to team-building and probably why Shanahan was able to call off minicamps and do very little in training camp to prepare his team for the regular season.

The 49ers have had their share of bumps and bruises, but I like this team. If I’m GM John Lynch, the only reason I’m not sleeping well is because I’m antsy and want to see it all come together.

Randy Mueller is the former general manager for the Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins. He spent more than 30 years working in NFL front offices as a talent evaluator. Follow him on Twitter or at muellerfootball.com.