Rams’ Familiar Foe Poses the Greatest Threat

The Rams need to become back-to-back divisional champions if they want a smoother road to the Super Bowl, something that is entirely dependent on whether Matthew Stafford can remain healthy. Who projects to be their greatest threat when it comes to winning the NFC West in 2025?

Biggest Threat?

Realistically, the two teams that are most likely to win the NFC West in 2025 are the Rams and the San Francisco 49ers. The Seattle Seahawks did a complete overhaul of their offense, and their hiring of Klint Kubiak is encouraging for their run game, but they have a ceiling on how successful they can be with Sam Darnold as their starting quarterback.

The Rams have proved they can handle Darnold when they destroyed him in the playoffs last year, and that was when he was surrounded by more talent on offense. The Seahawks don't have enough on offense or defense to make me think the result will be different with him in Seattle.

The Arizona Cardinals are an intriguing option to consider, but they always seem to have a late-season collapse, which results in them missing the playoffs. Until Kyler Murray can show that he can sustain their offense for the course of the entire season, I wouldn't put much stock into them, even with an improved Marvin Harrison Jr. heading into year two.

Scary Hours in San Francisco

The reason why I'm so adamant that it's a two-horse race for the NFC West is that the 49ers came in last place in the division last season, which means in 2025, they have an easier schedule. Their schedule isn't just easier, it's the easiest in the league.

It's true that the 49ers have less receiving talent than they've been accused of in the past couple of seasons, and their defense got dismantled in free agency. However, they're still a talented roster that retained most of its key players, not to mention Brock Purdy taking a step last season as a passer.

If the Rams are healthy, they'll be able to win the division with ease. Yet, if they falter just a little bit, I'm sure the 49ers will be right behind them in the standings. There's an overwhelming amount of evidence that supports the NFC West coming down to these two teams, and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Division Winner Predictions

The staff at CBS Sports compiled their predictions for each division winner and gave some reasoning as to why they picked the team they did. For the NFC West, the majority of the staff chose the 49ers, with the Rams coming in second.

"I'm not overthinking this. Yes, the Rams are a sexy pick and the Seahawks are even a little frisky, but San Francisco has the easiest schedule in the NFL this season and are due for positive injury regression. They could remind people real quick who they (still) are", said Tyler Sullivan.

I won't lie, this is sound reasoning. The 49ers were one of the unluckiest teams when it came to injuries last season, and their biggest competition for the division is already dealing with an injury to their most critical player.

There's no way that the 49ers have the amount of injuries they had last season, and even if that were somehow to be the case, all it takes is for the Rams to have a sliver of some of that bad luck for their season to be derailed.

The Rams will have their work cut out for them if they're going to successfully stave off the 49ers in their pursuit of winning the NFC West. If Stafford is healthy, this team's potential is sky high, but if he's out with an injury for a long time, it's the 49ers' division to lose.

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