2014 NFC West will be the battle of the birds.

We all know how good the Cardinals D was just last year, but now in all honesty they seem to have improved on paper that will rival ours!:0 last year they had the best run stopping Defense and the following in these Categories- #7 on points allowed, #6 in yards allowed, and even at their weakest point "PASS DEFENSE" they still managed a #14 ranked pass D. Still relatively good. Here comes the scary part tho; starting CB's both which are Pro-bowl quality in Peterson & Antonio Cromartie. Safeties position is ok with the FS Matthews a.k.a the honey badger and SS will probably be adressed in the draft with their 20th pick.this Defense will be STOUT!!! with the remaing draft picks the will get a few O-line and WR'S to help the Lonesome and Aging Larry Fitzgerald. they might get a TE but I dont see it after them signing Greg Olsen. Well this is a Forum lets discuss fellow 12's, what is your view on the matter? Or who do you think will challenge us the most in the Division this upcoming season. By the way I didnt choose the 49'ers because of their deteriorating age at the D-line , MLB Bowman will most likely miss half the season, and their once good secondary is now a joke to me with so many departures and weak free agent signings in Safety Antoine Bathea and CB Chris Cooks .

Sorry NOT "Greg Olsen" but our former TE in John Carlson.

Cards are definitely on the rise, but as long as they have Palmer at QB they're going to struggle to overtake the Hawks and Niners in the West.

If Arians is smart, he'll go heavy on O-Line and RB's in the next couple of drafts and try to build the Cards around pounding the rock, so Palmer doesn't lose 3-4 games a year like he always does by throwing stupid picks.

They've tried to draft rb's fairly high. Beanie Wells a few years back, Wasn't it Ryan Williams or something like that more recently.

Your right though, with their D. they should look towards what we do as the blue print.

With the Cromartie signing, they look a ton better on paper. There are a few things to watch out for:

Who will replace Dansby and how effective will he be ? They have a kid they drafted in the 2nd round (forget his name) that they have slated for that spot, but he's not NFL proven yet, so we'll see how that works.

Carson Palmer: will they proctect him better ? If you get pressure on Palmer, he'll let it fly, similar to Cutler. If they can't get his INT's down, the Cards will still be weak that way.

OL: THey signed Veldheer and they have their 1st round Guard coming back this year, so on paper it looks better. If they can get a run game going (does Arians even believe in a run game?) or protect Palmer, they could be pretty scary.

What are they doing on offense ? Was is Roberts they lost ? He was their deep threat and Arians likes to throw the ball down the field. We'll see what they do in the draft but as of right now, their WR corps does'nt look any better than ours does, and definately looks worse than SF's or ours.

They key matchup will be SF and ARI in the division. We split with SF last year and it won't surprise me to do it again this year, but SF has beaten ARI like 10 times in a row. They've owned them, and if ARI wants a seat at the table, they have to beat SF at least once. This division looks scary good and I can honestly see all of us going 3-3; the teams that go 4-2 in division will be sweeping the Rams. I don't see ARI, SF or SEA getting swept by anyone else in the division.

not ready to buy into the cards just yet. not much in the way of a running game, fitz is getting older, and carson palmer is an interception machine.

Their defense is worthy of much respect as was their win against us in seattle last season. But t hey're gonna have to start strong to prove it to me.

I feel like they'll be missing Dansby though, the guy brought a lot of leadership/moxie along with his play-making ability.

Am I the only one that thinks the Cardinals will go back to mediocrity this coming year, one of those fluke solid years to nothing. I'm not saying this will happen just a hunch.

Not buying it Wilson<--> Keapernick <---> Bradford Carson.

Agree with this premise completely. I've speculated that the 49ers are a team on the decline. Hard to imagine they continue a 4th year of challenging for the Super Bowl. Even the greatest teams have a hard time doing this, and the 49ers are not in that echelon of teams.

The Cards were a 10-win team last year in a tough NFC West division already. Carson Palmer is better than folks give him credit for. He was one of the best quarterbacks in the league until the Stealers blew out his knee a number of years back. Sure, he's a shell of his former self, but he's not even in the same discussion as Skelton, Kolb, and whatever other bottom dwellers they used to have slinging the ball to opposing defenses.

Losing Dansby, not really having much of a QB and how powerful Seattle is might mean that AZ comes in second, but it won't be close.

I don't think that's correct. The Cardinals are not a very good overall team. Palmer is only going to be a year older and not a bit better then you have no running game and a defense wishes it was as good as ours.

I think aside from the Seahawks the rest of the visit was going to take a step back next year.

SonicHawk":l14ject0 said:

Losing Dansby, not really having much of a QB and how powerful Seattle is might mean that AZ comes in second, but it won't be close.

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You might have forgotten, but we dun got our butts whooped at home by the Cardinals late last year.

And that's what Cardinal's fans will hang their hat on... until we beat them twice this upcoming season.

Oh, I think you're most likely correct in that they won't be very close to us; I'm just showing a little respect to the first and only team to beat us at home since 2011.

What kind of sucks and is a viable concern is that them bastards know they can beat us at home. Their coaching staff had a great game plan against us last season at home and shut us down, completely, all game long.

I think they are going to be our primary nemesis over the next few years and may even sustain some success against us during the regular season. But we are the better team through and through, and these types of teams (and as a 12, you understand) that are built for deep playoff runs. #3 isn't going to lose anyhow.

cards will drop a bit, rams will rise

RolandDeschain":1wauee14 said:

SonicHawk":1wauee14 said:

Losing Dansby, not really having much of a QB and how powerful Seattle is might mean that AZ comes in second, but it won't be close.

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You might have forgotten, but we dun got our butts whooped at home by the Cardinals late last year.

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Ooooooo! Dansby didn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of opponents. Campbell and Dockett are another story. Their secondary started looking pretty good during the second half of last season, and now they have Cromarte. They also managed to run and short pass us to death.

They will be tough to beat.

Veldheer and Cooper are going to be huge additions to that offensive line, I look for Ellington to be one of the best backs in the league next year.

Right now, I think the Cards are 50/50 to win the West in 2014.

Seahawk Sailor":1yeadbbp said:

Agree with this premise completely. I've speculated that the 49ers are a team on the decline. Hard to imagine they continue a 4th year of challenging for the Super Bowl. Even the greatest teams have a hard time doing this, and the 49ers are not in that echelon of teams..

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What makes you say this?

If the NFC Championship defeat has done anything, it probably sharpened the Niners focus and desire to get back on top of the NFC. They certainly still have the young talent to continue to play well, we just have to hope that D-Baugh continues to implode the Niners from the inside.