NFL Draft Aftermath: Winners and Losers from the NFC West

Ryan Finley

There are interesting changes afoot in the NFC West. The division has been dominated by Seattle in the last few years, with Arizona sometimes putting up a fight, sometimes not. Those teams aside, the division has two brand new head coaches in Sean McVay now heading up the Rams and Kyle Shanahan finally getting his head coaching shot with the 49ers. (You can read more about coaching changes this off-season right here.) They should bring change to the way offenses work in this division and it should make for an interesting few years to come.

As far as this year’s draft, there were an awful lot of defensive players across the division, and perhaps not quite as many interesting offensive players. Here are the pick highlights by team (you can also read a full draft review here🙂

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Arizona Cardinals

Chad Williams, WR Grambling

TJ Logan, RB North Carolina

Los Angeles Rams

Gerald Everett, TE South Alabama

Cooper Kupp, WR Eastern Washington

Josh Reynolds, WR Texas A&M

San Francisco 49ers

CJ Beathard, QB Iowa

Joe Williams, RB Utah

George Kittle, TE Iowa

Seattle Seahawks

Amara Darboh, WR Michigan

Winners

Jared Goff, QB LAR

Goff showed a flash or two last season, but ultimately it was a lost year for the team and the rookie quarterback. The Rams drafted three quality pass catchers to try and address the situation and also added Andrew Whitworth in free agency to try to shore up the offensive line. Could the line have used more help? Probably, but Whitworth is a good first step. Kupp and Reynolds are both interesting receivers for different reasons. Kupp seems to catch everything that comes his way, and Reynolds can take the top off of a defense. I’m excited about the offensive possibilities for this team and I’m a believer in Goff to improve his game this year.

Todd Gurley, RB LAR

Let me preface this next one by saying no, I’m not a fan/homer of the LA Rams. I do really like the idea of McVay as the new Head Coach, however, and have been targeting Rams players this off-season because of that. If Goff does indeed improve and the Rams can actually drum up a passing offense, it will go a long way to help out the once-lauded Gurley as well. Once Goff can get something going through the air, teams won’t be able to stack the box quite so much, and Gurley should have a better chance to rack up some yards on the ground. I really do still believe in Gurley as a talent and I think talent will win out long term in LA. Don’t throw in the towel on this running back too quickly – he is NOT the next Trent Richardson.

John Brown and JJ Nelson, WRs ARI

Hey, what do you know. The Cardinals did NOT draft another small, speedy wide receiver. Instead, they drafted Williams, who is certainly an interesting player but a different profile than Brown or Nelson. If anything, Williams may be more of a long term replacement for Larry  Fitzgerald, which is good news for the other wideouts. Brown may have had an off year, but many smart fantasy types like him to bounce back this year. Nelson likely bought himself a little more playing time with the flashes he showed late in the 2016 season. Both should be in line for plenty of playing time.

The San Francisco Running Game

The other new head coach in the division, Kyle Shanahan, is well known for running successful offenses. He helped turn many Devonta Freeman doubters into Freeman Believers, and he managed to carve out a role for the speedy Tevin Coleman at the same time. Now Shanahan is bringing his successful zone blocking scheme run game to the bay. It can take time to insert such a new system, but luckily for Shanny, Chip Kelly himself ran a similar running scheme. Will this mean instant success on the ground? Probably not, but there is an awful lot of potential there, I’m just not sure who exactly will be able to take advantage of it. And that brings me to…

Losers

Carlos Hyde, RB SF

I know I know, I was JUST saying how I expect the San Fran running game to improve. I’m just not entirely sure Hyde is the player who will get it done. I’ve never been a huge Hyde fan, as one of my earlier articles here will attest. It’s not that I don’t think Hyde is talented, I do believe he has talent, I’m just not sure he ever really takes advantage of that talent. And Shanahan did supposedly get “his guy” in this draft with Joe Williams. But a word of caution here, as too many people were calling Freeman DOA when the Falcons drafted Coleman. How did that whole “Shanny got his guy” narrative work out? If anything, we’ve learned that his offense can support two strong runners, and perhaps that’s what we’ll have in Hyde and Williams. I’m just not convinced Williams won’t just take the job outright.

The Seattle Backfield

I don’t get it. I know Seattle is a strong organization that has had a lot of success but I feel like they have ignored the offensive line to a fault in recent years. Our latest Vox Talks article had Matt Price asking us which Seattle running back we’d take this season. My real answer is I don’t really want any of them. Their offensive line was ranked dead last in 2016, and they did almost nothing to address it. With such a bad line, how could they have waited until the sixth round to draft anyone to help? I realize it wasn’t a great draft in that regard, but Seattle had real offensive line needs. I’m not sure how any running back can be all that successful in that situation.

San Francisco Receivers

Remember when Colin Kaepernick was the envy of many around the league? My, how things have changed. Kaep is now without a team and ranked behind the stellar Cody Kessler currently. I can see why San Francisco is letting him walk with such a capable answer in Brian Hoyer? If I weren’t a Bears fan, I’d throw up right now. However, I’ve seen worse at quarterback. Still, this does not bode well for the San Francisco receiving corps. They are already lacking a bit in terms of talent, and they have a middling quarterback (at best) throwing it to them. To top this all off, the big answer in a strong quarterback draft was CJ Beathard. Word is Beathard was hand-picked by Shanny but I don’t buy it. You’d be better off not buying it, either.

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