Back in the lazy days of July, the Around The League gang settled on the NFC West as football's most dominant division.
Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians agrees that the West deserves its reputation as one of the NFL's most physical outfits, but he isn't willing to bow down to the division's presumed front-runners, the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks.
Brandt: Cardinals on the rise
Yeah, the Cards are better, but they don't stand a chance in the NFC West -- right? Don't be so sure, Gil Brandt says. **More ...**
"I don't see the dominance that everybody else talks about," Arians said Thursday, per the Cardinals' official website. "One of those teams may be (dominant). It still has to be played on Sunday."
The 49ers and Seahawkspossess two of the league's strongest rosters, but Arians oversees a Cardinals team with sneaky talent. Two gaping voids -- at quarterback and along the offensive line -- were addressed in the offseason, and Arizona has the making of a nasty young secondary led by Patrick Peterson.
It wasn't long ago that San Francisco and Seattle were adrift in a division ripe for taunting. Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll revived those respective franchises, and Jeff Fisher is doing the same with the St. Louis Rams. It's easy to treat the Cardinals as a footnote, but Arians won't let his players think that way.
The Around The League Podcast is now available on iTunes! Click here to listen and subscribe.
