Joey’s NFL Hot Takes: NFC West Edition

With over a fourth of the season played, there’s no time like the present to discuss NFL hot takes for the NFC West — the grittiest division in football. Let’s dive into this quarterback-centric hot takes edition.

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers ruined their playoff hopes for future seasons by paying Brock Purdy. In two games, Brock Purdy amassed 586 passing yards, four touchdowns, and four interceptions. In three games, Mac Jones, the interim and supposed backup quarterback, garnered 905 passing yards, six touchdowns, and one interception. Jones also averages 301 passing yards per game, which is the most in the NFL. The 49ers are 4-1, and not much of that success can really be attributed to Purdy. San Francisco signed a five-year, $265 million contract extension with Purdy this past May. While Purdy had proven to be an alright quarterback for head coach Kyle Shanahan’s system, did it warrant spending over $200 million to keep him? Absolutely not, especially when players like Jones can easily do the job at quarterback, arguably better too, and cost a literal 1/100th of the Purdy contract. The 49ers are limiting themselves by paying Purdy an absurd amount of money and will never recreate a competitive roster without offloading that contract.

Arizona Cardinals

The Kyler Murray experiment needs to end. In his five games this year, Murray has just 57 more passing yards than Mac Jones, with six touchdowns and three interceptions. He has the ninth-worst QBR of the 32 eligible quarterbacks, and the 13th-worst passer rating of the 33 eligible quarterbacks. He has not had a 4,000 passing yard season nor a 30 passing touchdown season in his six completed seasons. Murray’s only achievements are winning Offensive Rookie of the Year and two Pro Bowl appearances. Maybe his personal performance could be excused if the team was successful, but that’s far from the case. Arizona has only had three seasons winning eight or more games under Murray, and made the playoffs just once. The Cardinals have entrusted their future to someone who would rather play Call of Duty than watch game film. The organization originally put a mandatory minimum of four hours of independent film study as a clause in Murray’s contract extension before retracting it as public backlash arose. As the number one overall pick in 2019 and a $230 million quarterback, he is wholly unsatisfying. In his seventh season, he looks uninspiring and not the quarterback of the future by any means. The Cardinals need to let go of Murray for their own sake.

Los Angeles Rams

Matthew Stafford is going to have his best year yet. He leads the NFL in passing yards and has 11 touchdown passes, the second-most in the league, while only throwing two interceptions thus far. Stafford has been known to throw many interceptions, surpassing the double-digit threshold in all but four seasons. In his arguably two best seasons, 2011 and 2021, Stafford had, in each season, over 4,800 passing yards, 41 touchdowns, and at least 16 interceptions. ESPN currently projects that Stafford will throw for over 5,100 passing yards and 37 touchdowns, with a mere seven interceptions. While those two years show Stafford’s evident skill as a pure quarterback, the poise and resistance to turnovers this year show that, at age 37, Stafford could very well be on his way to winning his first regular-season MVP.

Seattle Seahawks

Sam Darnold’s success in Seattle is understated. Darnold has the third-best pass completion percentage, the sixth-most passing yards, and the most average yards per pass attempt. He’s tied for the seventh-most passing touchdowns with reigning MVP Josh Allen. He is third in passer rating, behind only Lamar Jackson and Jared Goff. He has a 78.8 QBR, second in the league to only Daniel Jones. Darnold has the stats of an elite quarterback, with pass completion percentage, average yards per pass attempt, passer rating, and QBR this year being career highs for the player. He may not throw for as many yards as last season, but Darnold is playing far more composed than ever before. Moreover, the Seahawks are 3-2, which is understandable considering the two losses were to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers, two playoff-contention teams this season. Darnold’s play this season has shown that last year was no fluke, and that he is here to stay as a winning, high-quality quarterback.