Raiders could win the NFC West? Not likely.....

I was perusing the ESPN NFL Blog and happened to run upon a debate between blogger's Mike Sando and Bill Williamson.  The debate was on whether if in the NFC West that the Raiders could win that division.  I found it to be a rather interesting debate but there is no way that I could agree with Williamson's stance that the Raiders are better than the 49ers and I am not really sure the Raiders are better than the NFC West's number two team, the Seahawks.

The Raiders have done well to improve their team in the past off-season with the addition of Jason Campbell, the drafting of Rolando McClain and Lamarr Houston, as well as getting rid of JaMarcus Russell but that does not put them in a winning the division status.  As a matter of fact, I don't even see how they win more than 8 games.  After looking at their schedule, my guess is they finish the season 7-9.

Although they have improved the run defense with the additions of McClain and Houston they still cannot seem to stop the run.  In the past two preseason games (I know its preseason) both the 49ers (165 rushing yards) and the Bears (174 rushing yards) have rushed for over 150 yards and the majority of those yards came against the Raiders first team defense.


The other issue for the Raiders is being able to keep Campbell upright.  In the 49ers game, Campbell was sacked twice and was eventually knocked out of the game.  If the Raiders cannot protect Campbell then they have little to know chance of winning more than 5 games with him on his back and Bruce Gradkowski in the game.

On the other side the 49ers had a good offseason, just like the with the Raiders.  During the offseason they were able to use their draft picks to address the offensive line, pick up some depth on the defense, find a legitimate backup running back, and address their kick and punt return issues.  They also have managed to pickup a veteran backup running back in Brian Westbrook and pick up Ted Ginn Jr. to help with the return game and give them some speed at wide receiver.  On top of all those moves, the defense has gotten better and will look to be a top-5 defense this year.

The question I have for the 49ers is whether Alex Smith will be to turn the corner to be a legitimate starting quarterback.  By all accounts, he has had the best offseason in his entire career and finally has an understanding of the offense that he will be running.  It will be the first time in his career that Smith runs the same offense for two consecutive years.

Even with the concern at QB for the 49ers, I would still put them ahead of everybody in the NFC West and have them winning at least 10 games and if things go well they could even get 12 wins.

Who do you think is the better team?