You could argue that the NFC West is football’s best division. It includes the conference’s past two champions, San Francisco and L.A. Seattle is led by an MVP front-runner who has already won a ring, and Arizona has the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year. For the Niners, the competition from within the division will make the climb back to the Super Bowl all the more steep.
A pessimist could point out that San Francisco depended on narrow escapes last season, with five of its wins by five points or fewer. But an optimist would counter that the team’s four losses were a three-pointer in Baltimore that turned on a failed fourth-and-inches attempt, an overtime defeat to Seattle that could have been avoided if a fill-in kicker had made a 47-yard field goal, a defeat on the final play from scrimmage against a red-hot Atlanta team, and their Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs.