Saturday’s game between the Rams and Seahawks highlighted a lot we already knew. The Rams defense is just as dominant as an entire season. Russell Wilson was fired five times, threw an interception – he should have had a pair, and Seattle was never comfortable in attack.
Jalen Ramsey’s PFF grade was 56.3 in this match. He was targeted six times against DK Metcalf, allowed three catches for 33 yards and broke a pass. If you only rate targets, they will be exposed to your rating system. The point is that the Rams have a cornerback who can shut down one side of the field, opening everything up for the rest of the defense.
On the other side of the ball, Jared Goff remained Jared Goff, while the Rams managed the ball effectively and relied on Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods to pass the heavy work in passing. Jamal Adams was not good all season, and he was happy to allow just 78 yards of coverage. He is liable as soon as he is ten meters past. In both of the last two games, Sean McVay has put a lot of effort into isolating and targeting Adams. This is telling, especially when the Seahawks gave up on acquiring Adams.
Seattle head coach Pete Carroll got a lot of levels on Monday morning after saying that Seattle’s primary focus in 2021 would be to manage football more regularly and effectively. NBC Sports’s Joe Fann.
Of course, people will run with Carroll’s quote and make jokes about ‘let Russ cook’, but if you’ve watched Saturday or Seahawks over the past two months, he has a point. For whatever reason, we always ignore the games where Russell Wilson does not play well. He didn’t look like a top-3 QB the last half of the 2020 season, with more on his plate.
This brings me to the question: are the 49ers willing to regain control of the NFC West next season? The Rams defense undressed the Seahawks’ offensive line. Seattle could not get much of anything going, and so their offense passed by 31% on Saturday. Seattle are without their next two first rounds.
It is important to keep a salary cap as well. Look at the salary constraints for each team:
Here’s a quick look at each team’s estimated 2021 salary cap against their 2020 record
Top right = good record, good cap position
Top left = good record, bad cap position
Bottom right = bad record, good cap position
Bottom left = disaster pic.twitter.com/3Wo7luqCJg– Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) 11 January 2021
None of the four NFC West teams have a lot of winding space for their salary limit. The Rams are handcuffed because Goff occupies 19% of their cap space, and Los Angeles is also without the first round thanks to the Jalen Ramsey trade.
I did not mention the Cardinals for a reason. They need a lot of help. Arizona had a successful season, but they flushed out an excellent opportunity in the toilet after being three games over 0.500 and not making the playoffs during a conference that did not do the same caliber as the AFC. Have you ever watched Kliff Kingsbury this season and thought, wow, the Niners are in trouble going forward? I did not think so.
The Cardinals will be taken seriously until further notice, serious or not. Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins are a deadly combination, but the offense relies too heavily on the duo for production. This is how the Cardinals half of the season went like this: a loss to the Dolphins, a win with hail mary over the Bills, then three losses in a row against the Seahawks, a Patriots team that is not doing well was not, the Rams scored two wins over the NFC East, and losses for the 49ers and Rams, where their offense seemed outrageous.
Where does San Francisco fit into all this? To say ‘when this team is healthy’, this team has been ignored a lot during the past seasons. You name it, and the 49ers were injured in that position. Serious. Even in 2019, Robbie Gould missed time with an injury. The team’s kicks missed time with injury.
Yet they remained competitive in 2020, despite feeling that half of the list was in the injured reserve. Let’s assume for this exercise that Jimmy Garoppolo is still on the 49ers and staying healthy in 2021 – that’s the only constant we will use in this case, the health of the quarterback.
Knowing that the Rams and Seahawks roster will remain relatively unchanged, do you still feel that the Niners will be the kings of the division next season?