What It Will Take For The 49ers To Win The NFC West

July 4, 2010   ·   jake winiecki   ·   Jump to comments

In 2009, the Arizona Cardinals won the  NFC West fairly easily. This year that will not be the case.
When Kurt Warner announced his retirement earlier this year, that knocked the Cardinals off of the top rung of the NFC West ladder.
The off season that followed hurt their chances even more. The losses of Anquan Boldin, Karlos Dansby, and Antrell Rolle hurt the team significantly.
With all of this being said, that leaves the San Francisco 49ers atop the pre-season power rankings of the division.
We know that the 49ers have a great running game in Frank Gore, with Glenn Coffee backing him up and even starting in the inevitable one or two games that Gore will miss due to injury.
We also know about the strong defensive line and linebacker play led by all-pro Patrick Willis.
But what we don't know is how well the offensive line will hold up, and whether Alex Smith can take another step away from being a complete draft bust (taken at No. 1 in '04).
In ...

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