NFC West projections: Please, don't go west, young man...

Cardinals: 12-4 (5-1) I know Super Bowl runners up don't tend to make the playoffs, but I think this team bucks that trend. Warner to Fitzgerald/Boldin/Breaston should be worth enough points for them to roll over offensive midgets like the Seahawks, 49ers, and Rams, and if their defense plays with the confidence and speed they played with in January/February, the Cardinals are a threat to be in Florida the last week of the season yet again. But I wouldn't be even a little bit surprised if their defense reverts and they end up winning the division, like last year, essentially by default.

Rams: 5-11 (4-2) What the hell is it with these West divisions anyway? Is football somehow at odds with manifest destiny? I literally have nothing to say about this team. Steve Spagnuolo is a hell of a defensive coach but he doesn't have even a quarter of the pass rushers he had with the Giants, which is essentially all that made those defenses so good. To top it all off, his only decent offensive players, Steven Jackson and Marc Bulger, can't stay healthy. Unless I'm way off, second place in this division really is the first loser.

49ers: 4-12 (2-4) Of course, it's better to be the first loser than the second, right? Shaun Hill just won their quarterback competition and it wasn't even close. Need I say more? It's a tragedy Patrick Willis, perhaps the best middle linebacker in the game right now, certainly the best young one, has to suffer on a defense that just isn't gonna stop anybody. Their one ray of hope is a rookie possession receiver who hasn't had a single day of training camp, preseason, or even week 1 practice. See you in the top 10 in April.

Seahawks: 3-13 (1-5) They have an oft-injured, aging quarterback, a newly minted "#1" receiver who has only ever been a decent #2 and was always opposite a stud #1, no running game whatsoever, and an aging, bad defense. Add to that a retread head coach who didn't exactly light the world on fire the first time around and it all adds up to an appropriately rainy forecast for the waterbirds.