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Are the 49ers the Best Team in the NFC West?

Technically, the 49ers are in first place in the NFC West. But their record is just 3-3 and they're 1-2 in the division. So where do they really rank?

Grant Cohn

Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) shakes hands with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) following a 49er victory at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) shakes hands with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) following a 49er victory at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
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Technically, the 49ers are in first place in the NFC West. But their record is just 3-3 and they're 1-2 in the division. So where do they really rank? Here's where I'd place each team.

1. The Arizona Cardinals

Their record is 2-3, but they've lost only to good teams -- the Bills, the Lions and the Commanders. As opposed to the 49ers, who lost to the freaking Rams. The Cardinals destroyed the Rams and beat the 49ers, too. They have an excellent head coach and an extremely dangerous quarterback who's becoming more consistent.

2. The San Francisco 49ers

They haven't beaten a good team yet. The Seahawks, the Patriots and the Jets are three of the worst teams in the NFL. The Rams might be even worse than those three teams and the 49ers lost to them, which is pitiful. The 49ers simply haven't had a dominant performance yet this season. On Thursday, they nearly blew a 20-point second-half lead as Geno Smith and the Seahawks eventually cut it to a five-point lead. The 49ers are far from the juggernaut they used to be.

3. The Seattle Seahawks

They have lots of talent but their quarterback, Geno Smith, does not elevate their team. He's relentlessly mediocre and the worst quarterback in the division. They would be so much better if they had Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford or Brock Purdy.

4. The Los Angeles Rams

They're currently too injured to take seriously. When they're healthy they're dangerous, but it's starting to seem like they never will be healthy and need to purge their roster of their older players.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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