The Arizona Cardinals enter this season without Kurt Warner who retired and Anquan Boldin the wide receiver so their league leading offensive prowess has taken a hit. They will not win the Superbowl with Matt Leinart as their QB so they acquired Derek Anderson who I think will win the job because he has experience. He should have much better pocket protection in Arizona than he ever had in Cleveland so considering that can he protect the ball?

The Cardinals left something to be desired on defence so the changes at safety really balance out. Coach Ken Whisenhunt went out and got guys that he expects will work harder and help win games back there. The guys who left wanted more money to stay and if it isn’t perfect why pay them more?

The offensive line is better with Alan Faneca on board. He has a history with Whisenhunt and he knows how he will be used.

This team has a chance to be more of a running team in the post Warner era so Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower will be prominent players on this offense.

Superbowl?

No, not without a “top eight” quarterback, but win this division, yes, because only Seattle has someone experienced enough at quarterback to show them up and they have other problems.

The San Francisco 49ers are the chique pick in the west because of Arizona’s QB change. San Francisco has decided on Alex Smith to their QB and only brought in David Carr just in case – if they actually go to him they will have problems.

What they get in Smith is just enough – 18 TDs and 12 Ints over 11 games – and really I wonder if it is enough?  The offensive line will be beefier with Anthony Davis and Mike Lupati coming in on the draft, but again rookies to help an almost novice QB take the next step seems a reach.

Can Frank Gore survive a season and not end up sidelined for half of it to help out the running game in San Francisco? They have backups that run through the middle like Gore when he is healthy but no outside running threat seems to be established on this Niners’ team.

This is already too many question marks for me to have much confidence in them getting better than last year. These are all questions on offense but defensively they tend to hold their own well.

They absolutely need to balance running game to give their defence a break early in the season so the answers need to be clear up front early on.

The weak overall schedule may assist the Niners, but they play New Orleans, Atlanta and Philadelphia over the first five weeks so we will know quickly if they can.

Seattle Seahawks have some big changes for 2010 including the arrival of Pete Carroll as head coach. The NFL has changed a little in his 10 year absence, but anything would be better than Jim Mora Jr., who has now destroyed two organizations as a head coach.

Carroll breeds success and he will rely on his vets to take him 75% of the way. He will decide early whether the 35 year old Matt Hasselbeck is worth expending energy on. The Hawks have given Charlie Whitehurst the money to be their next QB, and that could be sometime this season.

The arrival of LenDale White and Leon Washington at running back in the Pacific Northwest may be the most significant of offseason developments. These are guys who have been there and done that in running the ball. These are just the players that Hasselbeck needs to have confidence in the running game. He has not had that since Shaun Alexander was in his prime.

Perhaps one of the reasons Carroll took this job in Seattle was his vision that it would be a quick fix with the talent they have.

Decent run blocking and good receivers like T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Deion Branch mean the team probably just needs tweaking to contend in the west.

Seattle catches a break with the schedule. San Francisco gets harder teams as the extra games while they get Chicago and the New York Giants both teams that Seattle would match well with.

St. Louis Rams round out the division with a new QB (A.J. Feeley) and a new future QB (Sam Bradford) but not a lot else has changed and they only won 1 game last year.

It will take a while to get better but they have a fair chance under Steve Spagnuolo’s teaching to improve defensively in 2010.

This team has needs like – a solid lead blocker for star running back Stephen Jackson. If Jackson is to stay healthy and to pro-bowl form he will have the ball lots so two guys might be needed blocking for him.

Is there someone who will be cut from an organization and become their veteran receiver? They are the same youthful bunch as in 2009 which don’t make much sense if they are going after more than 1 win. They only get one game against Detroit in 2010.

They will not likely play Bradford much this year until some protection is established on the o-line.  Bradford already has had shoulder surgery and he has not played an NFL game yet.

They also will have to think of a way to tighten up their run defence. The Rams were # 27 in run defence in 2009.

The Rams are decent against the pass, and their specialty teams have been the best in the league, but it depends how motivated they stay as the season drags on.

They will have to do better than in 2009 because by now the coach has figured out what his guys can’t do and now the test will be trying to match them up with what they can do best to help the team win.

PREDICTION