NFC West Bulks Up with Boldin and Harvin
The already ultra-powerful NFC West got a little bit stronger this week as the San Francisco 49ers picked up Anquan Boldin – the receiver who torched them in the Super Bowl – while the Seattle Seahawks nabbed multi-talented Percy Harvin. Both players headed West after trades.
The 49ers and Seahawks were already considered strong Super Bowl contenders by most sportsbooks’ futures odds and by analysts, so they can be regarded as even bigger threats now; to other teams and to each other.
The Boldin deal is interesting for San Fran, a team that had no real trouble at the receiver position. Still, it never hurts to get stronger at any position and to give Colin Kaepernick more talented, veteran guys to throw to seems like a pretty good plan.
“We’re happy to have him. Having a playmaker like that at receiver is something you always want,” Kaepernick told ESPN. “It’s another weapon for our offense and our team.”
The 49ers are now so stacked on offense and defense, it’s hard to imagine a team being able to take them down, but maybe it will be a team in their own division, which is a team that also dismantled them in a regular season game toward the end of the schedule last year. That team of course, was the Seattle Seahawks.
The Seahawks have had problems at the receiver position for years and although they got more production out of Sidney Rice last season, the Hawks will love to have Percy Harvin, a small, quick receiver who is a game-changer on the offensive side of the ball. He can hit the home run on a screen pass, or on a deep ball, which takes more pressure off young quarterback Russell Wilson.
The only with concern with Harvin is staying healthy. He only played nine games last season, but in those games, he put up impressive numbers – 62 catches for 677 yards and three touchdowns.
We can now safely say that the Seahawks are also stacked on both offense and defense, so let the power struggle in the NFC West begin.
If asked to pick a favorite though, we have to go with experience. The 49ers came oh-so-close last year and they’ll definitely be hungry to take that next step. Of course, the Seahawks also made an impressive postseason run, getting robbed by Atlanta in the final minute of the divisional game. They will also come back with bigger goals in mind this year.
We know one thing. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun watching these teams play each other, no matter who comes out on top.
