[h=1]Plugging the Holes: NFC West[/h][h=3]Identifying biggest remaining needs for Cardinals, 49ers, Seahawks, Rams[/h]By Vince Verhei | Football Outsiders
ESPN INSIDER
In this post-draft edition of Plugging the Holes, Football Outsiders will look at the largest remaining personnel needs of every team, division by division.
Friday's edition examines the NFC West.
[h=3]Arizona Cardinals: Right guard and right tackle[/h]
When it came to addressing obvious weaknesses, few teams did a better job this offseason than the Cardinals. In free agency, they added potential starters in cornerback Antonio Cromartie, left tackle Jared Veldheer and tight end John Carlson. In the draft, they spent a first-round pick on safety Deone Bucannon, who should be a starter from day one. Then, in the second round, they found tight end Troy Niklas, an old-school, physical blocker/short-route type. They even found a quarterback of the future in Logan Thomas. As a bonus, they'll get some key injured players back in 2014. Notably, Jonathan Cooper, last year's first-round pick who missed his entire rookie season due to a broken leg, is expected to return to the lineup. The Cardinals -- the only team that beat the Seahawks in Seattle -- won 10 games last year, and on paper, they're even better now.
The offensive line, though, still needs some work, specifically on the right side. Veldheer and Cooper should be big upgrades at left tackle and left guard, and center Lyle Sendlein has been a desert mainstay for half a decade now. But the incumbents at right guard and tackle, Paul Fanaika and Bradley Sowell, had never started an NFL game before this past season. There were 165 offensive linemen with at least 500 snaps in the NFL last year. Sowell ranked second-worst among those players in rate of blown blocks per snap, according to the Football Outsiders game charting. Fanaika was in the bottom 20 percent. Last year's starter at right tackle, NFLPA president Eric Winston, remains available. It wouldn't be a surprise if he donned a Cardinals helmet again.
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[h=3]San Francisco 49ers: Cornerback[/h]
Last year's starters, Carlos Rogers and Tarell Brown, have moved across the bay to Oakland together. In their place, the 49ers plan to start Tramaine Brock and Chris Culliver. Brock, the team's nickelback last year, was the target on more than a quarter of the passes aimed at San Francisco cornerbacks. In other words, opposing quarterbacks picked on him over and over again whenever he was on the field. Also, in 600-plus snaps last year, he never once made a tackle on a running play. Culliver, meanwhile, played OK as the team's nickelback in 2012 but missed all of 2013 with a torn ACL suffered in training camp. His life since then has been a string of arrests, lawsuits and offensive remarks. None of that has anything to do with his ability to play football, but it does mean he's a headache, and headaches tend to run out of second chances quickly in the NFL.
The 49ers added Chris Cook in free agency, but the veteran has struggled to stay healthy and never played more than 12 games in a season for Minnesota. Last year, he was one of eight NFL corners to give up more than 10 yards per target. It's hard to see him developing into a star at this point. There are three other veteran options on the roster: Eric Wright, Perrish Cox and Darryl Morris. That trio combined for just 203 snaps last year.
[h=3]Seattle Seahawks: Offensive line[/h]
Ironically, it's the defending Super Bowl champions who have the most glaring weakness in the division. Marshawn Lynch broke so many tackles that he made the offensive linemen look better than they were, but not even Russell Wilson was slippery enough to lift Seattle out of the bottom of FO's Adjusted Sack Rate rankings. In a division with the Cardinals, Rams and 49ers, the Seahawks can't field a line as bad as last year's and expect to win another championship.
Remember those 165 offensive linemen with 500 snaps last season, mentioned in the Arizona section above? Five of the bottom 40 players in blown blocks per snap played for the Seahawks (including Breno Giacomini, now with the Jets). Seattle has a good center in Max Unger, a good left tackle who can't stay healthy in Russell Okung and a bunch of question marks at the other three offensive line positions.
The current plan is to stick James Carpenter at left guard. Carpenter, a first-round pick in 2011, has bounced in and out of the lineup for years. Right guard J.R. Sweezy, a seventh-round pick in 2012, played defensive line in college and sometimes still seems to be adjusting to the position switch. Michael Bowie, the projected starter at right tackle, was a seventh-round 2013 pick out of Northeastern (OK) State who had been kicked off Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State team. He was a healthy inactive for the Super Bowl. Second-round draft pick Justin Britt (Missouri) will challenge for a spot somewhere, but sixth-rounder Garrett Scott (Marshall) won't, as the Seahawks waived Scott after a physical showed signs of a rare heart condition.
[h=3]St. Louis Rams: Quarterback[/h]
The Rams have perhaps the league's deepest defensive line, an impressive set of linebackers and a lot of young talent in the secondary. They have youth and potential in the skill positions, and they added Auburn offensive tackle Greg Robinson with the second pick in the draft to boost their offensive line. Now they need their quarterback to finally live up to his draft status.
Four years after the Rams took Sam Bradford with the first overall pick in the 2010 draft, he has yet to have what you could objectively call a good season. To be fair, by most measures, he was enjoying his best season when he tore his ACL in 2013 (although his QBR was actually a little higher in 2012). Even so, Bradford has never finished higher than 20th in QBR, while other young quarterbacks, such as Robert Griffin III, Nick Foles, Colin Kaepernick, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson, have been setting records and leading their clubs to the playoffs.
True, Bradford has not been playing in ideal conditions. His receivers, though talented, are inexperienced. His offensive line has struggled with injuries. And Brian Schottenheimer's offense has been as frustrating to watch in St. Louis as it was in New York. Still, Bradford is the man on the field taking snaps and making passes, and he is the player most responsible for what happens with the team's offense. Given the talent now around him, he's out of excuses. If he can't figure it out in 2014, it's doubtful that he ever will.
ESPN INSIDER
In this post-draft edition of Plugging the Holes, Football Outsiders will look at the largest remaining personnel needs of every team, division by division.
Friday's edition examines the NFC West.
[h=3]Arizona Cardinals: Right guard and right tackle[/h]
When it came to addressing obvious weaknesses, few teams did a better job this offseason than the Cardinals. In free agency, they added potential starters in cornerback Antonio Cromartie, left tackle Jared Veldheer and tight end John Carlson. In the draft, they spent a first-round pick on safety Deone Bucannon, who should be a starter from day one. Then, in the second round, they found tight end Troy Niklas, an old-school, physical blocker/short-route type. They even found a quarterback of the future in Logan Thomas. As a bonus, they'll get some key injured players back in 2014. Notably, Jonathan Cooper, last year's first-round pick who missed his entire rookie season due to a broken leg, is expected to return to the lineup. The Cardinals -- the only team that beat the Seahawks in Seattle -- won 10 games last year, and on paper, they're even better now.
The offensive line, though, still needs some work, specifically on the right side. Veldheer and Cooper should be big upgrades at left tackle and left guard, and center Lyle Sendlein has been a desert mainstay for half a decade now. But the incumbents at right guard and tackle, Paul Fanaika and Bradley Sowell, had never started an NFL game before this past season. There were 165 offensive linemen with at least 500 snaps in the NFL last year. Sowell ranked second-worst among those players in rate of blown blocks per snap, according to the Football Outsiders game charting. Fanaika was in the bottom 20 percent. Last year's starter at right tackle, NFLPA president Eric Winston, remains available. It wouldn't be a surprise if he donned a Cardinals helmet again.
<OFFER></OFFER>
[h=3]San Francisco 49ers: Cornerback[/h]
Last year's starters, Carlos Rogers and Tarell Brown, have moved across the bay to Oakland together. In their place, the 49ers plan to start Tramaine Brock and Chris Culliver. Brock, the team's nickelback last year, was the target on more than a quarter of the passes aimed at San Francisco cornerbacks. In other words, opposing quarterbacks picked on him over and over again whenever he was on the field. Also, in 600-plus snaps last year, he never once made a tackle on a running play. Culliver, meanwhile, played OK as the team's nickelback in 2012 but missed all of 2013 with a torn ACL suffered in training camp. His life since then has been a string of arrests, lawsuits and offensive remarks. None of that has anything to do with his ability to play football, but it does mean he's a headache, and headaches tend to run out of second chances quickly in the NFL.
The 49ers added Chris Cook in free agency, but the veteran has struggled to stay healthy and never played more than 12 games in a season for Minnesota. Last year, he was one of eight NFL corners to give up more than 10 yards per target. It's hard to see him developing into a star at this point. There are three other veteran options on the roster: Eric Wright, Perrish Cox and Darryl Morris. That trio combined for just 203 snaps last year.
[h=3]Seattle Seahawks: Offensive line[/h]
Ironically, it's the defending Super Bowl champions who have the most glaring weakness in the division. Marshawn Lynch broke so many tackles that he made the offensive linemen look better than they were, but not even Russell Wilson was slippery enough to lift Seattle out of the bottom of FO's Adjusted Sack Rate rankings. In a division with the Cardinals, Rams and 49ers, the Seahawks can't field a line as bad as last year's and expect to win another championship.
Remember those 165 offensive linemen with 500 snaps last season, mentioned in the Arizona section above? Five of the bottom 40 players in blown blocks per snap played for the Seahawks (including Breno Giacomini, now with the Jets). Seattle has a good center in Max Unger, a good left tackle who can't stay healthy in Russell Okung and a bunch of question marks at the other three offensive line positions.
The current plan is to stick James Carpenter at left guard. Carpenter, a first-round pick in 2011, has bounced in and out of the lineup for years. Right guard J.R. Sweezy, a seventh-round pick in 2012, played defensive line in college and sometimes still seems to be adjusting to the position switch. Michael Bowie, the projected starter at right tackle, was a seventh-round 2013 pick out of Northeastern (OK) State who had been kicked off Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State team. He was a healthy inactive for the Super Bowl. Second-round draft pick Justin Britt (Missouri) will challenge for a spot somewhere, but sixth-rounder Garrett Scott (Marshall) won't, as the Seahawks waived Scott after a physical showed signs of a rare heart condition.
[h=3]St. Louis Rams: Quarterback[/h]
The Rams have perhaps the league's deepest defensive line, an impressive set of linebackers and a lot of young talent in the secondary. They have youth and potential in the skill positions, and they added Auburn offensive tackle Greg Robinson with the second pick in the draft to boost their offensive line. Now they need their quarterback to finally live up to his draft status.
Four years after the Rams took Sam Bradford with the first overall pick in the 2010 draft, he has yet to have what you could objectively call a good season. To be fair, by most measures, he was enjoying his best season when he tore his ACL in 2013 (although his QBR was actually a little higher in 2012). Even so, Bradford has never finished higher than 20th in QBR, while other young quarterbacks, such as Robert Griffin III, Nick Foles, Colin Kaepernick, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson, have been setting records and leading their clubs to the playoffs.
True, Bradford has not been playing in ideal conditions. His receivers, though talented, are inexperienced. His offensive line has struggled with injuries. And Brian Schottenheimer's offense has been as frustrating to watch in St. Louis as it was in New York. Still, Bradford is the man on the field taking snaps and making passes, and he is the player most responsible for what happens with the team's offense. Given the talent now around him, he's out of excuses. If he can't figure it out in 2014, it's doubtful that he ever will.
