Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

The NFC West fared worse on average than any division in our latest NFL power rankings. After placing the Seahawks among the top 10, most voters viewed Arizona and St. Louis with skepticism. They gave the 49ers virtually no shot at contending.

Counting all 40 votes for NFC West teams, the 10 panelists produced a 20.1 average ranking for teams in the division. The NFC East led all divisions with a 9.53 average ranking, followed by the AFC South (10.4), AFC North (15.7), NFC North (18.23), AFC East (18.35), NFC South (19.65) and AFC West (20.03).

I ranked NFC West teams at 17.5 on average, higher than any panelist. My ratings for the Seahawks, Cardinals and 49ers were consistent with how other panelists saw those teams. Some panelists ranked those teams higher than I ranked them. But no panelist ranked the Rams higher than my No. 19 ranking. I'll get into the reasoning a bit later.

Reading the chart: The second through fifth columns show how ESPN.com panelists ranked each team in the division. The final column shows how each panelist ranked NFC West teams on average. The chart is sorted in order of highest average ranking for the division. Each team's column includes two shaded cells. Red shading highlights out the team's highest ranking. Yellow shading highlights the team's lowest ranking.