Sando's Question: NFC West vs. NYGiants

by: Chris Sullivan

Today Mike Sando posed a pretty good question: How many NFC West starters could start for the New York Giants current starters? I decided to break it down... Let's take a look:



So, as you can see, the Giants offense is quite clearly full of win. It could be argued that Plaxico Burress could start over Boldin or Fitzgerald (though, I think it would be tough to argue it at this point), but he's not likely to play again this year from what I can tell. So, bam! Lets break it down a little further...

ARIZONA CARDINALS
I give both Boldin and Fitzgerald the nod over Hixon and Toomer, but as I said above, I think either could beat out Burress in a lot of situations -- plus, look at Boldin's "drama" compared to Burress' drama. Enough said... As far as the Quarterbacks go, I have to give Manning and Warner equal chances. Could Manning be playing up to Warner's numbers if a) he had a mediocre running back and b) he had two fantastic WRs? It's possible. I split their start there. Arizona ends up with 2.5 starters.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
If John Carlson's rookie season is a bellwether to how he will play in the future, I think its possible we have a Jason Witten or Chris Cooley type on our hands. I would take his current production and his future possibilities over Kevin Boss, though I think Boss is a very good tight end. Walter Jones is still, in my mind, the best tackle in football. He had a fantastic year until Wahle got injured, and we saw a similar Jones to the one that concerned us in 2007. When Walt is concerned about what is happening beside him on the line, he plays somewhat poorly. I'd take him over Diehl anyway, but especially with Walt next to Seubert and O'Hara? Any day of the week! Walt wins. I gave a shout out, but not a half-point to Leonard Weaver, who has emerged as a short receiving threat and is solid, but not elite, in his blocking.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
Uh. Frank Gore is pretty good, right? I gave Gore credit a la Weaver above, but I would still take Jacobs over him pretty much any week. Gore is solid, don't get me wrong, but he has never scared me for whatever reason. After seeing Jacobs bowl over the weenie tackles our LBs threw at him, uh, yeah, he kinda scares me. Jacobs wins! No one else got very heavy consideration.

ST. LOUIS RAMS
Remember what I said about the 49ers? Well, the Rams are kind of like that, except WAY WORSE. Stephen Jackson gets a shout out because of having a couple good years a couple of years ago. He no longer scares me, and the bottom line is, Jackson may still be a threat, but he doesn't seem to make the players around him better and lets face it, the Rams are bad. The Seahawks are bad too, but the Rams seem to almost reek of desperation of late. Orlando Pace was once exceptional, but injuries have slowed him down, and he wouldn't have gotten the nod over Walter Jones anyway.


So, there ya go. That's my breakdown. Your turn!