The Seattle Seahawks enter the 2015-16 NFL Season with yet another target on their backs. Not only have they been to back-to-back Super Bowls, but they are an incredibly balanced team with a defense that makes the world ‘elite’ seem like an understatement.
The St. Louis Rams enter the 2015-16 NFL Season with their heads held high, but it’s tough to imagine them forcing the likes of the Seattle Seahawks or Arizona Cardinals into a battle for the divisional crown by the time the regular season comes to a close.
The Arizona Cardinals enter the 2015-16 NFL Season looking to make up for a terrible finish to their 2014-15 campaign. Despite starting 9-1, this group went on to finish just 11-5. For those keeping track at home, that’s a 2-4 finish — a finish due to the loss of both Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton to the injury bug.
The San Francisco 49ers enter the 2015-16 NFL Season as the big losers of the offseason. The hope following the conclusion of 2014-15 was that an 8-8 season was going to be an anomaly of a down year, but there’s virtually no scenario where you can make the case a bounce-back year is in order for this group from the Bay Area.
The Seattle Seahawks enter the 2015-2016 NFL season with typically lofty goals and seemingly few reasons to think that those goals aren’t completely attainable. The Hawks remain one of the best coached teams in the game, they have a balanced offense that added a key piece in the offseason and they still own one of the best defenses in the game.
The St. Louis Rams will enter the 2015-2016 NFL season with their annual sense of optimism, but seemingly few other reasons to think that they can challenge the top dogs in the NFC this year. No longer will the Rams have to sit on pins and needles with every preseason and regular-season snap praying that Sam Bradford doesn’t get hurt – he’s Philadelphia’s problem now.
The Arizona Cardinals looked to be on a path toward the Super Bowl last year before a string of bad luck derailed any plans to advance deep into the playoffs. After a 9-1 start, the Cards lost four of their last six games, lost Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton to injury and subsequently fell off the radar.
It is hard to imagine a team having a worse NFL offseason than the San Francisco 49ers. Any hope of improving on an uber-disappointing 8-8 campaign from last year took a hit seemingly every week when the season concluded.
The St. Louis Rams enter another season full of promise – promise that Sam Bradford can finally shake the injury and inconsistency bug and can take the Rams to a different level.
The Arizona Cardinals will try to build on a terrific 2013 season in which they won 10 games and almost qualified for the postseason. A lot is starting to go right in the desert – Coach Bruce Arians looks like a savior as he heads into the second year as Head Coach.
The San Francisco 49ers enter the 2014 season as third betting choice to win the Super Bowl in February. And why not? The Niners have been to the NFC Championship game three straight years; they have 10+ wins in their last three seasons and are coming off a 12-4 campaign.
The reigning Super Bowl Champions begin the season in pursuit of a very difficult goal – a repeat Super Bowl performance. The Seahawks opted to mainly “stay the course” with their roster- to stick mostly with the players that saw their defense dominate and their offense do enough to get them to the top of the mountain.
The Seattle Seahawks improbable run all the way to the divisional round of the conference playoffs last season was a combination of a strong performance at home, a winning record in the division, and the use of some smoke and mirrors along the way.
Arizona went into the tank last season after quarterback Kurt Warner decided to retire and wide receiver Anquan Boldin was shipped off to Baltimore.
After three dismal seasons in which St. Louis won a total of six games, things are finally looking up after posting a 7-9 record in 2010.
The Jim Harbaugh era is underway in San Francisco as the former head coach of the Stanford Cardinal makes his transition to the ranks of the NFL.
