We have worked our way across the NFL Country from the East to the South to the North and we conclude with the Wild West.

NFC West

1st Place: San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers have arguably the best overall roster in the NFL. Both top West teams have a disgruntled defensive player waiting to get paid. But beyond that, this roster is solid. There biggest position issue has been QB. They traded up all the way to pick 3 a couple of years ago to solve this problem but instead found a solution in round 7 last year. I don’t think we have seen enough to know if Brock Purdy really is the solution. But I have seen enough that he is at least as good as Jimmy G, and much cheaper. The biggest struggle the 49ers will have is the fact that they may be the most injury prone team in the history of the league. I don’t know who their trainers are but they should get some new ones. They have a lot of guys who get hurt a lot. Deebo, McCaffrey, Kittle, Mitchell, the list goes on. Purdy got hurt last year too. But if half of them stay healthy, they should win the division.

Reason the win the West: They have the best team in the division and maybe in the league.

Reason they won’t win the West: They do what they normally do and everyone gets hurt and they run out of guys.

Fantasy Players to Draft: I have CMC ranked #2 on my board only behind Jefferson. If he gets hurt it is a bummer. But if he doesn’t, you will be real happy you drafted him. I am higher on Kittle than normal because Purdy seems to really like to throw him the ball. I am still not super high because it is only a matter of time before Kittle gets hurt and in fact he might already miss the first game. Deebo will score some points for you but also will get hurt. Aiyuk is a nice pick up especially where he is getting drafted. Drafting Mitchell late makes sense to me because if CMC gets hurt he will be the guy. Purdy is a decent pick up late as a back up if you don’t like your starting QB.

Predicted Record: 13-4

2nd Place: Seattle Seahawks

Everyone seems to think that Seattle is either going to win the division or miss the playoffs. I’m in between. Now they could certainly win the division based upon a bunch of 49ers getting hurt. But in order to beat the healthy 49ers their defense and Geno would have to take a pretty big leap forward. They are a solid team, though with solid weapons and good coaching. I think they are a sure fire playoff team and 4 or 5 49er injuries from winning the West. And if there defense improves you may not want to play them in the playoffs.

Reason they will win the West: Geno improves and the 49ers do 49er things and run out of players.

Reason they won’t win the West: Pete Carroll chokes on his gum as the Seahawks choke away the season.

Fantasy Players to draft: Metcalf and Lockett are no brainers. Lockett gets a thousand yards and 8 touchdowns every year. The rookie kid is hurt so he could be good but won’t have an early impact. Kenneth Walker was very good last year and the new kid Charbonnet is a good pick up in the later rounds. He has real upside and if Walker gets hurt, he will quickly become the guy. Geno Smith isn’t a terrible pick up in late rounds if you wait on QB.

Predicted Record: 11-6

3rd Place: Los Angeles Rams

The Rams went all in on the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. The result one super bowl ring and one disaster of a team. They have a couple great players in Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp. And then a lot of not so good players. They have no depth. Now Matt Stafford’s wife has said he can’t connect with his teammates. It’s always a best practice for your spouse not to talk about your job on the radio. Of course most spouses don’t face this predicament. Typically Steve from logistics wife doesn’t get interviewed on Sirius. Anyhoo, it doesn’t sound like things are going great over there. They do have Stetson Bennett as their back up. He and Stafford both went to Georgia and are only a couple of years apart in age so Matt should be able to connect to him.

Reason they will win the West: Donald has 42 sacks and Stafford throws for 3,000 yards just to Cooper Kupp overcoming the fact that the rest of the team sucks.

Reason they won’t win the West: Matt Stafford in attempt to connect with his new, young teammates gets sucked into the never ending world of social media and online gaming and we don’t hear from him the rest of the season.

Fantasy Players to draft: Kupp although he has some sort of hamstring issue. Cam Akers has high upside but often finds himself in the doghouse for some reason. That is about it. You can pick up their defense the two weeks they are playing the Cardinals.

Predicted record: 6-11

4th Place: Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals were not good last year but they are going all in this year to be as terrible as possible. They hired an inexperienced coach. Kyler Murray is out at least 4 games maybe longer. They dumped Colt McCoy and will likely start Josh Dobbs this week who has been on the team about 10 days. Their defense isn’t good. Their offense is worse. I think it is incredibly hard to go 0-17…but they just might be able to pull it off.

Reason they will win the West: Hell freezes over

Reason they won’t win the West: They are trying to top the Texans for worst run organization.

Fantasy Players to draft: James Connor and Hollywood Brown because as bad as they are, someone has to get the rock.

Predicted record: 2-15 (like I said, it is real hard to go defeated)

AFC West

1st Place: Kansas City Chiefs

No surprise here. I might be accused of being a homer but the Chiefs have won the division every year from 2016 to the present. Mahomes has never lost a road divisional game. They had the best record in the AFC last year, one year after trading arguably their best offensive weapon. They have the best quarterback, tight end and coach in the league. The defense isn’t great but also very young and could be better than last year. They would certainly be better with Chris Jones on the roster but they can win the division without him. I don’t think they can win it all without him but he said he would be back by week 8. That’s about the same time the new guy comes off suspension. So lets say we go 5-2 in the first 7 and then those two show up. We will be in great shape to make another run.

Reason they will win the West: Patrick Freaking Mahomes!

Reason they won’t win the West: Mahomes gets hurt and Andy gets sick and misses games.

Fantasy Players to draft: Mahomes obviously. Kelce will go early as well. People will argue that Kittle or whoever is a better tight end because they block better or whatever. There is no debate when it comes to fantasy. It is Kelce and then everyone else. Pacheco is a good pick up and McKinnon is streaky but a great guy to have on your bench. I don’t have enough confidence in any of the receivers to draft any of them before the 12th or 13th round.

Predicted Record: 14-3

2nd Place: Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers have talent and should be good but they always find a way to lose. Their coach seems over his head. Herbert is very talented but doesn’t seem to be all that clutch. People want to blame their defense for their collapse in the playoff game last year, and the should shoulder much of the blame. But Herbert led the team to a whopping 3 points in the second half and missed several opportunities in the first half. The Chargers also like to get hurt a lot. Their stadium is where acls go to die. So based upon them choking a lot and getting injured a lot, they should be just good enough to finish second and either just get in or just miss the playoffs.

Reason they will win the West: Mahomes gets hurt and the other two teams suck so they win by default.

Reason they won’t win the West: They are the Chargers and are the kings of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Fantasy Players to draft: They got a lot of them. Herbert, Ekeler, Keenan Allen (although I refuse to draft him because I hate him), Mike Williams, the rookie kid from TCU. The list goes on.

Predicted record: 10-7

3rd Place: Denver Broncos

The Broncos should be a functioning football team today which would certainly be an improvement. Sean Payton can coach and if nothing else is an adult so that should be a good starting point. For whatever the reason, their receivers can’t stay healthy. And to be honest, they aren’t very good when they are in the game. I still don’t think Russ is very good. I saw a decline in him the last couple of years he was in Seattle. The o-line should be better and their running backs are good. I think that they are at least a year away from the playoffs maybe more depending if Russ gets back to form. But winning 7-9 games is reasonable based upon their schedule. That should be enough to make my wife less miserable. And I think the Broncos beat the Chiefs in Denver breaking the 15 game losing streak and Mahomes perfect record in the division on the road. Just kidding, the donkeys find a way to lose once again.

Reason they will win the West: Mahomes gets hurt and the Chargers do Charger things.

Reason they won’t win the West: Russ is still Russ. Let’s Ride!

Fantasy players to draft: The running backs. That’s it. I’m not touching this passing game until I see it in action.

Predicted Record: 7-10

4th Place: Las Vegas Raiders

The Raiders broke a 20 year streak of missing the playoffs a couple of years ago. So how do you ruin a good thing? You hire Josh McDaniels. In about 18 months he made this team significantly worse. Jimmy G is not better than Derek Carr. And he also gets hurt pretty much every year. Now players are literally stating they don’t want to play for McDaniels. Josh seems like he is competing for worst head coach in NFL history. After his disaster of a job in Denver he is off to the races to make this round even worse. The best part is the Raiders have one of the smallest owner groups with the least amount of money in the league. They are already paying several other coaches who they fired and it is rumored they won’t fire McDaniels because they can’t afford to hire the next guy. But I am sure Tom Brady’s few bucks will save they day. Unless he bought in with Bitcoin.

Reason they will win the West: Mahomes gets hurt, the Chargers do Charger things, Sean Payton let’s Russ cook.

Reason they won’t win the West: Raiders gonna raider

Fantasy Players to Draft: Davante Adams and Josh Jacobs. That’s pretty much it.

Predicted Record: 5-11

Tune in tomorrow for the first league rankings of the year! Then you will also get a Five for Friday on Friday. Fifth-Down will be back in full effect for the NFL season.