Is Week 1 a Truth or a Lie about How the NFC West Will Play Out This Season?

One week into the season, the NFC West already looks upside down, and the crew spent a full segment trying to decide whether to believe it.

It started with the Arizona Cardinals. "I don't know who the Cardinals are, but I want to get to know them maybe," one member of the desk said, which instantly became a dating-app bit. Swiping right on the Cardinals? "I might," came the answer, from someone who then admitted to never having been on a dating app in their life. Not Tinder, not Raya, not Bumble. The desk's verdict: chaos merchant.

The real question was whether Arizona could beat Seattle. Not everyone was sold. Seattle barely beat the Patriots, the argument went, with the score at 10-0 pretty much the whole game. "Week one was fugazi," one voice declared.

Division games go sideways all the time, though, and at least one member of the crew considered picking the upset before backing off. "I'm not trying to get the 12s on my back," came the explanation. "The 12s are very sensitive." It didn't help that the picks were due at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, a deadline the desk agreed is ridiculous.

Then came the exercise: power rank the NFC West through one week, as if these are brand-new teams with no history. The first attempt went 49ers, Seahawks, Cardinals, Rams. That drew a challenge. "Arizona has to be over Seattle right now," was the argument, because the Cardinals "just went on the road and beat the Chargers, a team that everyone assumed was going to be a playoff team," while Seattle "won at home on banner night." The list got reshuffled to 49ers, Cardinals, Seahawks, with a warning to the comment section that it has nothing to do with how the division will finish.

Seattle came up for another reason. TJ got a package from two Seahawks fans, Dane and Kat, with a long letter and a throwback DeMarcus Lawrence jersey. The letter said TJ had taken a lot of heat on behalf of the Dallas Cowboys and that they liked how he told the truth about Dallas instead of always predicting a Super Bowl. If he ever decides to leave Dallas, they wrote, the jersey is there for him.

Was it a troll? One member of the crew was nearly certain it was. Lawrence, after all, was a Cowboy who went to Seattle and won. TJ refused to see it that way, arguing nobody spends 150 bucks on a jersey just to troll someone. The letter actually got ahead of it, warning that "two follicly challenged individuals" close to TJ would try to read it as a dig. "Number one rule performing, know your audience," someone quipped.

The Rams are where things get serious. Is Monday a must-win? "There is no doubt," came the answer. The Giants arrive looking like a John Harbaugh team, physical enough to out-muscle the Cowboys. Another truth-or-lie question emerged: are the Giants this good? Is Jackson Dart this disciplined and efficient, with Malik Nabers fully healthy, Isaiah Likely looking like the No. 2 pass catcher, and Cam Skattebo and Devin Singletary as a one-two punch?

That creates a scary scenario for Los Angeles. "A loss here, 0 and 5 is a real possibility for a team that we thought could go undefeated in June and July," the desk warned.

The schedule math got wild. Worst case, the Rams start 0-5, then face Arizona, Vegas, the Chargers, Washington and Arizona again. Maybe they are 5-5 at the bye. Then come Green Bay on Thanksgiving Eve, Kansas City, San Francisco, Dallas and Seattle. Go .500 there and the Rams finish 8-9.

Someone offered the optimistic version, a team that starts 0-5, gets hot and plays for a Super Bowl in its own backyard. And if the Giants win again, the desk figured, they jump about 15 spots in the power rankings, and suddenly people are talking about Dart for MVP and Harbaugh for coach of the year.

At least one crew member will be at the Rams' home opener Monday and expects it to feel like a Rams home game, especially if Aaron Donald plays. Nobody knows what Donald will look like, which is what makes it fun. So the desk consulted a Magic 8 Ball. Are the Rams going to start 0-2?

"It is certain."

"That's a lie," came the immediate response. "Eight ball don't lie," came the reply.