Cardinals: “It’s like a darkhorse”: Ex-49ers WR backs $4,300,000,000 worth Cardinals to pip San Francisco for NFC West crown

The NFC West will have no shortage of talent in 2025 as the San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks gear up for the new season. Over the past 10 seasons, all four teams have claimed a division title, but the Rams ultimately claimed the NFC West crown last season with a 10-7 campaign.

Entering the 2025 season, the LA Rams and 49ers are co-favorites to win the division, but one of San Francisco's former wideouts picked an outside division rival to win the NFC West this season.

On Monday's episode of the "Up & Adams" show, Pierre Garcon picked the Arizona Cardinals to win the division in 2025, motivating star quarterback Kyler Murray in the process.

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"I'm looking forward to Arizona taking the next step," Garcon said. "I think it's like a dark horse... I think Arizona has some structure together to surprise people. I'm looking for Kyler Murray to take it."

The Cardinals haven't won a division title since 2015, but are coming off a surprising 8-9 campaign in 2024 despite injuries throughout the roster. The team is one of the most valuable in sports, entering the offseason with a valuation of $4.3 billion, according to Forbes.

Cardinals given second-best odds to win NFC West

Entering their offseason program, the Cardinals are looking to make some noise in one of the toughest divisions in football. All four NFC West teams saw vast improvement over the offseason and will give each other no easy path to the division title this season.

According to FanDuel Sportsbook, Arizona received the second-best odds to win the NFC West in 2025, behind both San Francisco and Los Angeles, who are co-favorites with (+175) odds. Arizona's (+400) odds rank slightly ahead of Seattle, which has (+500) odds to win the division crown.

Arizona is coming into its third season under first-time head coach Jonathan Gannon, who has given the team new life after a 4-13 campaign in his first season in 2023.

About the author

Ethen Hutton is an analyst who works for Sportskeeda, covering College Football, the NFL, the NBA and the WNBA. Ethen graduated high school with academic and athletic honors and is a member of the National High School Honors Society. After a gap year, Ethen jumped into sports writing and has over two years of experience in the field.

Ethen was raised in Ohio and is a Cleveland Cavaliers fan. His favorite all-time player is Pete Maravich as his shooting and ball-handling abilities were way ahead of his time. His favorite player in today’s NBA is Nikola Jokic due to his fascinating skillset as a big man.

Ethen loves the storylines around the NBA and the chaos that the offseason and trade deadlines bring. He enjoys technical deep dives with strong statistical analysis as well as stories where he's able to take a stance as an analyst. He is very prideful in the correctness of his work and will do extensive research to ensure all facts and evidence are 100% accurate.

When not working, Ethen enjoys recording his sports podcast, Wide Right. He is also a very invested fantasy football player.

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Edited by Veer Badani