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Quinton Patton, the wide receiver San Francisco selected in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL draft, "has a passion for the game and it shows," draft analyst Nolan Nawrocki wrote in his annual preview guide.

The 49ers can attest to that passion after Patton showed up ready to get a jump on his career. There was one problem. Rules prevent rookies from reporting until rookie camps, which are more than a week away. Patton had to catch a flight home, but the initiative he showed resonated with coach Jim Harbaugh.

"[The] fact he buys a ticket, flies out here, speaks volumes about him," Harbaugh told KNBR radio in San Francisco, according to San Jose Mercury news reporter Cam Inman.

Patton hopefully collected some frequent-flier miles in the process.

Our post-draft amendments to pre-draft positional rankings continue with Matt Williamson, NFL scout for ESPN.com.

Up next: offensive lines.

NFC West teams drafted seven players at the position: guards Jonathan Cooper (seventh overall pick) and Earl Watford (116th) to the Arizona Cardinals; interior lineman Barrett Jones (113th) to the St. Louis Rams; guard Ryan Seymour (220th), defensive tackle-turned-guard Jared Smith (241st) and tackle Michael Bowie (242nd) to the Seattle Seahawks; and tackle Carter Bykowski (246th) to the San Francisco 49ers.

We pick up the conversation there.

Sando: The 49ers were a clear No. 1 in your rankings before the draft.

Williamson: They still are, and I'm not going to change the order from before the draft, but there is a lot to discuss at the position.

Sando: I promise we'll change the order for one of these post-draft rankings pieces.

Williamson: I think Arizona's offensive line is much improved from a year ago, much improved from before the draft, but I still have to keep them at No. 4. I think the Rams have improved too.

Sando: A day or so before the draft, Cooper suddenly became a popular projection to Arizona with the seventh pick, ahead of the other top guard, Chance Warmack. Either way, the Cardinals had their choice of guards in the draft.

Williamson: I love the Cooper pick. Guard was a bigger need than tackle. I thought they would go with Warmack because Bruce Arians has a history with huge and powerful linemen, downhill guys. It shows us how the league is going that so many of these linemen that got picked so high are good athletes. The days of the fat-guy linemen, the slow-footed maulers, are going by the wayside.

Sando: Cooper was seen as the more mobile of the guards relative to Warmack. He makes the Cardinals more athletic up front. Better yet, his selection prevents us from saying any longer that the Cardinals did not select an offensive lineman in the first three rounds since the 2007 draft. Finally, we can put to bed that reminder and focus on things such as ... just how athletic Cooper appears to be.

Williamson: All these teams are implementing up-tempo offenses. You can't have the offensive linemen huffing and puffing as the fattest guys out on the field. Cooper is the better pick over Warmack. They are equal prospects, but very different. Carson Palmer isn't getting out of the way of any interior rush. Cooper should be better in protection. Cardinals fans might not want to hear it, but Cooper might have been the best pick in the whole draft for their team. He does more for them than Luke Joeckel or Eric Fisher.

Sando: We saw the Cardinals and Rams take offensive linemen in the fourth rounds. Of the two, the Rams' pick, Jones, would appear to have the clearest path to a starting job. He could factor at left guard. He could also project as a future center. At the very least, Jones should back up multiple spots.

Williamson: If you are an offensive lineman and you are tough and smart and that is all you can be, you'll probably play 10 years in the league. That is Jones. He's a typical Alabama guy who has gotten the crap beaten out of him for four years, but he is smart as hell, he will play three positions and maybe even get you through a game at left tackle.

Sando: What do you think of the Rams' line overall with Jake Long, Scott Wells, Harvey Dahl and Rodger Saffold?

Williamson: They've got some nasty guys. Dahl is nasty, Jones is nasty, Wells has some of that, Long has some of that. Jeff Fisher is looking for a big, physical, nasty group that will take a shot or two after the whistle. They have gone finesse elsewhere on their roster, but not on the offensive line. Most teams are looking for speed and athletes on the line, but the Rams are going for nasty.

Sando: Seattle wants to play that way as well. The Seahawks drafted more offensive linemen than any team in the division, but each was a seventh-round selection. Bowie could be an interesting tackle prospect. Russell Okung helped recruit him to Oklahoma State, but Bowie violated team rules, left the program and wound up at Northeastern (Okla.) State. Smith projects as another J.R. Sweezy-type conversion project for Seattle line coach Tom Cable. The 49ers could use a swing tackle and took a candidate in the seventh round. But the Cardinals were the only NFC West team to address the line in a serious way.

NFL coaching and scouting can be itinerant work.

The San Francisco 49ers' announcement Wednesday that they had made promotions within their scouting department brought into focus crossover within the division.

Matt Malaspina, promoted to college scouting director after eight seasons with the team, previously spent five years with the Seattle Seahawks. Mike Williams, promoted to director of pro personnel, spent the 2009 through 2011 seasons with the St. Louis Rams.

Last offseason, the Seahawks announced Todd Brunner's hiring as an area scout. He had been with the 49ers from 2001 through 2011. The Seahawks in 2010 hired former 49ers general manager Scot McCloughan as a top assistant to their own GM, John Schneider, who previously worked with the 49ers' current GM, Trent Baalke, with the Washington Redskins.

One of the Arizona Cardinals' scouts, Chris Culmer, worked previously for the Seahawks.

Teams usually wait til after the draft to make changes to their scouting department.

The changes San Francisco announced followed Tom Gamble's departure to the Philadelphia Eagles in February. Gamble had been the 49ers' director of player personnel, reporting directly to Baalke. The 49ers promoted Joel Patten to fill Gamble's role. Patten previously was director of college scouting.

Cornerback Javier Arenas is the player Arizona will receive in return from Kansas City for fullback Anthony Sherman, the Arizona Republic's Kent Somers reports.

This move makes sense on the surface.

Sherman did not fit the Cardinals' new offense, which does not utilize a traditional fullback. Arenas, a 2010 second-round choice by the Chiefs' previous leadership, projects as a slot cornerback in a division that has added slot receivers Percy Harvin and Tavon Austin.

"Size hurts him, but Arenas is feisty and a big-time asset on special teams," said Matt Williamson, who scouts the NFL for ESPN.com.

The Chiefs signed veteran corner Dunta Robinson before using a fifth-round choice for cornerback Sanders Commings. They added cornerback Sean Smith in free agency. They already had Brandon Flowers. Arenas was apparently the odd corner out.

The Cardinals plan for 2013 third-round choice Tyrann Mathieu to play weak safety and slot cornerback, but Arenas would come to Arizona with game experience. Mathieu and Arenas are both 5-foot-9. Arenas is listed at 197 pounds. Mathieu is listed at 186. There is overlap between the players. Arenas could also provide some insurance for Mathieu, whose off-field issues have made him a higher-risk player in the Cardinals' eyes.

Arenas started nine games last season and played 693 snaps on defense, the third-highest total among Chiefs defensive backs behind Eric Berry (967) and Flowers (840).

Anthony Sherman should not go down in Arizona Cardinals history as a disappointing draft choice just because the team traded him after two seasons.

The 2011 fifth-round pick quickly became a solid starting fullback. But with new head coach Bruce Arians implementing a fullback-averse offense this offseason, Sherman became expendable through no fault of his own. That is why Arizona traded the 24-year-old blocking back to the Kansas City Chiefs in a deal Adam Caplan reported and Adam Teicher confirmed Wednesday.

"I have not been a fullback guy -- never have been," Arians told reporters during the NFL owners meeting in March.

The reasons for Arians' thinking are strategic. Fullbacks, for all their value in blocking, simply don't threaten defenses the way players at the other skill positions do. They tend to be one-dimensional players, so when they come into the game, defenses have a better idea what to expect. Some coaches have little use for fullbacks as a result.

"If you're a defensive coordinator and I send in a fullback and take out a tight end, I'm going to get your best call for that," Arians explained. "If I've got two tight ends, you don't know if one of them is going to play the fullback or one of them is going to be split out wide. You are going to be in that down-and-distance call. You don’t have a specific call."

Sherman started 11 of the 28 games he played in Arizona and logged 448 offensive snaps, according to ESPN Stats & Information. He carried the ball once and had 13 receptions for 111 yards.

The Cardinals drafted Sherman to develop him into a lead blocker while getting quality special-teams snaps from him. With former Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt becoming the San Diego Chargers' offensive coordinator recently, Sherman will twice a season in the AFC West play against one of the men responsible for drafting him.

"Two things, besides just being a good blocker, is that he’s an athletic player, he can catch the ball and do some things from that position athletically that can help us, and he’s a very good special-teamer," Whisenhunt said of Sherman during the 2011 draft. "When you have a role where you're expecting that player to get 15 or 20 snaps a game, he's got to have another significant contribution to your team. That’s how you build the strength of your team and we feel like he was probably, if not the best, at least in the top two or three of all the college players we looked at as special-teamers, and that’s important."

Sherman should be a better fit in Kansas City, where new Chiefs coach Andy Reid runs an offense featuring two backs a higher percentage of the time. Reid's Philadelphia teams did not rank among the NFL leaders in most plays featuring two backs, but they weren't far off the league average.

Also: A look at Javier Arenas, the slot corner Arizona is receiving from the Chiefs in return.

Jump ahead to 2015 and put yourself in John Schneider's seat as the Seattle Seahawks' general manager.

By then, you will have re-signed or lost elite players such as safety Earl Thomas and cornerback Richard Sherman.

Your quarterback, Russell Wilson, will be entering the final year of his rookie contract. Wilson will be eligible to sign a new one for the first time under the NFL's labor rules.

The same goes for Bobby Wagner, your starting middle linebacker, and Bruce Irvin, your highly drafted pass-rusher. All will cost much more than they're costing right now.

Your Pro Bowl left tackle, Russell Okung, will also be entering a contract year.

One receiver, Percy Harvin, will have a contract counting $12.9 million against the salary cap. Another, Sidney Rice, will have a deal counting $10.2 million.

Oh, and one other thing about this 2015 adventure: You'll have to decide whether to pay a $2 million roster bonus and $5.5 million salary for a running back entering his ninth season.

Marshawn Lynch is that running back, and right now, in 2013, he's about as good as they come, this side of Adrian Peterson. But you'll need younger, more economical alternatives for some of your best players down the line. These aren't the sort of immediate needs that show up in draft previews, but they're always lurking.

Now, thanks to one of the more surprising moves in the 2013 draft, the Seahawks have bought insurance for their future at the position most vulnerable to age.

Christine Michael, the Texas A&M running back Seattle unexpectedly selected 62nd overall Friday, must by rule sign a four-year contract through 2016. His deal will run past the contracts that Lynch and backup running back Robert Turbin signed last offseason. It will count far less against the cap than the $9 million Lynch's deal is scheduled to count in 2015.

Seattle probably did not draft Michael with the distant future in the front of its mind. One explanation trumps all others when determining why the Seahawks used a second-round draft choice for a running back with two perfectly good ones on the roster already. The team thinks Michael can be special.

"He was the highest-rated player on our board and we lost Leon Washington, so we were looking for a little bit of depth there, and he is just our kind of runner," Schneider said. "He's a tough, intense, up-field, one-cut guy, and he's just a very good football player, competitor."

Adding Michael does not imperil Lynch for the 2013 season, of course. It does provoke natural tendencies to wonder whether there's more to this story.

"I could be far-fetched here," Kevin from McKinney, Texas, wrote to the NFC West mailbag, illustrating how far the mind can wander, "but is it possible John Schneider and [coach] Pete Carroll are concerned with Lynch's future effectiveness due to the new lowering of the crown rule? It seems to me that is a big part of his game and significantly contributes to his yards after contact."

There is no way the rulebook pressured Seattle into drafting a running back.

Carroll and other coaches fear officials will struggle enforcing the new rule preventing runners from lowering their heads and delivering an aggressive blow to the opponent with the top of the helmet. The rule could affect Lynch, but league officials said they discovered only a few would-be violations per week when studying tape from last season.

The Seahawks selected Michael because they thought he was the best back in the draft and well-suited to their offense. They wanted additional depth for their running game, which will remain the focus of their offense. They have to realize that Lynch's back spasms, while manageable to this point, could become more problematic with additional wear and tear. And they surely realize that Lynch's occasional off-field troubles dating to his time with the Buffalo Bills could recur, inviting sanctions.

Adding Michael doesn't mean the team thinks less of Lynch or Turbin, a 2012 fourth-round choice. There are no indications the team is anticipating a Lynch suspension in relation to his DUI arrest last offseason.

Still, I would bet against Lynch playing out the final year of his deal when Michael and Turbin figure to be available at a significant discount.

Seattle was fortunate in 2010 to have a running back of Lynch's caliber and young age (then 24) become available by trade at reasonable cost. The team was wise to re-sign Lynch one year ago to a four-year deal featuring $17 million in guaranteed money.

This marriage should be good for both parties for the next couple of seasons.

Lynch's deal pays him $7 million in salary with an $8.5 million salary-cap charge in 2013. It carries a $5 million salary and $7 million cap number in 2014. The team will have a decision to make at that point because Lynch's deal includes a $5.5 million salary and a $2 million roster bonus with a $9 million cap figure for 2015, the contract's final year.

Michael, a luxury buy at present, should be much more than that by then.

St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead recently joined ESPN's Colin Cowherd for a discussion on the recently concluded 2013 NFL draft.

Snead noted that the Rams felt vulnerable holding the 16th overall choice for fear they wouldn't be "jacked" about any of the players likely to be available with that pick. That was one reason the team traded up to get Tavon Austin.

Cowherd also asked Snead whether the team missed out on any of the players it really wanted. This tends to happen from time to time in a draft. It's refreshing when a GM acknowledges it the way Snead did in this conversation. Why pretend every draft goes 100 percent to plan when that almost invariably is not the case given all the variables at work?

"In this draft, there was one player where probably about four picks before I was like, 'Dang,'" Snead said. "The guys we did pick, they were targeted. But in every draft there's always one or two where you go, 'Ah, I can't believe it. I wish that wouldn't have happened.'"

Snead wasn't going to identify why player the Rams narrowly missed in this draft. We can narrow the list through some amateur sleuthing.

Snead previously said the first round went 100 percent to plan. The Rams traded up for Austin and hoped to get Alec Ogletree after trading back from No. 22 to No. 30. We can rule out those two picks.

The Rams also traded up in the fifth round to select running back Zac Stacy. We can eliminate from consideration the choices immediately before the team selected Stacy.

Rams coach Jeff Fisher said the team was nervous that safety T.J. McDonald would not be available when the team picked at No. 71 in the third round.

"That was a 'hold your breath' pick, because we were a little bit nervous," Fisher told reporters after the draft.

We can eliminate that choice from consideration as well.

I'm guessing the team was targeting wide receiver Stedman Bailey with the second of its third-round selections. Bailey played with Austin at West Virginia. Receiver was a position the Rams wanted to address. No receivers were selected with the 12 picks preceding Bailey's selection. The San Francisco 49ers chose pass-rusher Corey Lemonier four spots before the Rams took Stedman. Seattle took defensive tackle Jordan Hill a spot before that.

That would leave the Rams' fourth-round selection of center Barrett Jones and fifth-round selection of cornerback Brandon McGee as more likely candidates, in my view.

Green Bay selected an offensive lineman, David Bakhtiari, four spots before the Rams took Jones. Offensive linemen Edmund Kugbila (Carolina) and Brian Schwenke (Tennessee) went off the board right before Bakhtiari was selected.

San Diego selected a corner four spots before the Rams took McGee.

The chart below shows the Rams' picks in the final row and the five players selected immediately before each one of them.

If the Rams missed out on only one player they really wanted and it happened somewhere on the third day, they had to consider themselves fortunate.

The San Francisco 49ers might have been second in ESPN's latest NFL Power Rankings, but oddsmakers are picking them to win it all this season.

The 49ers come in at 6-1, followed by the Denver Broncos (15-2), New England Patriots (8-1), Seattle Seahawks (9-1) and Atlanta Falcons (12-1).

The St. Louis Rams are at 60-1, with the Arizona Cardinals among the longer shots at 100-1.

Oddsmakers' primary goal is to make money, not necessarily to rank teams with 100 percent accuracy. The odds set for each team reflect a number oddsmakers hope will generate a roughly equal amount of betting on each side. That is the case when oddsmakers set point spreads as well.

"Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor," pregame.com explains.

Not that most of us care about the details. We want to know who is favored, and right now, that team is the 49ers.

Chatting with Bernie Miklasz about the NFC West in general and the St. Louis Rams in particular has become a staple each Tuesday.

The run is ending this week after Bernie hosted his final show on 101ESPN St. Louis. Bernie isn't leaving, fortunately. He's recommitting to his main job at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The paper has created an expanded role for him through its website. We'll stay in touch and collaborate in new ways, I'm sure.

In the meantime, I wanted to share the audio link to our conversation Tuesday. This was a Rams-only conversation primarily about their draft, specifically how the team has changed on offense.

The chart below shows key receivers, tight ends and running backs for the Rams in their final game before coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead arrived. It also shows key players at those positions now. Some of the players from the 2011 regular-season finale were on injured reserve at the time. The last two receivers listed in the right column aren't key players at the position. I included their names to even up the chart.
 

A long list of NFL mock drafts projected Oklahoma State receiver Justin Blackmon to the St. Louis Rams one year ago.

It's looking like the Rams came out just fine without him.

Blackmon, charged with DUI last offseason when authorities said they measured his blood-alcohol content at .24 percent, faces a four-game NFL suspension to open the 2013 season, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

These are the sorts of troubles NFL teams can do without.

The Rams held the sixth overall pick in the 2012 draft. Jacksonville traded into the No. 5 spot to select Blackmon. The Rams then traded back, eventually taking defensive tackle Michael Brockers, who showed flashes of dominance after recovering from injury.

St. Louis wound up using a 2012 second-round choice for receiver Brian Quick and a fourth-rounder for Chris Givens. The team drafted receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey over the weekend.

Blackmon caught 64 passes for 865 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. He led all drafted rookies in receiving yards and tied Kendall Wright for most receptions. Blackmon also suffered nine drops, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Givens caught 42 passes for 698 yards and three scores. Quick added 11 receptions for 156 yards and two scores.

A four-game suspension for Blackmon would prevent him from playing against Kansas City, Oakland, Seattle and Indianapolis to open the season. He would be eligible to return for the Jaguars' Week 5 game -- against the Rams in the Edward Jones Dome.

Our post-draft amendments to pre-draft positional rankings continue with Matt Williamson, NFL scout for ESPN.com.

Up next: wide receivers.

NFC West teams drafted five of them: Tavon Austin (eighth overall pick) and Stedman Bailey (92nd) to the St. Louis Rams, Chris Harper (123rd) to the Seattle Seahawks, Quinton Patton (128th) to the San Francisco 49ers and Ryan Swope to the Arizona Cardinals (174th).

We pick up the conversation there.

Sando: Matt, you had Arizona first last time, followed by Seattle, San Francisco and St. Louis. What has changed?

Williamson: I have to keep the order the same for now, but it's harder now. Swope would have been a much higher pick without the concussion problems. His timing for being eligible is terrible, but I keep Arizona No. 1 for sure. Nobody got better enough to take the top spot. Michael Floyd is a really good player. Larry Fitzgerald is a stud. Andre Roberts, you could do way worse than him for a No. 3 and Swope might even challenge him.

Sando: Swope ran 40 yards in the 4.3-second range at the NFL scouting combine. He is 6 feet tall and about 200 pounds. The speed he brings gives the Cardinals something they didn't really have previously. That is something I like about the way NFC West teams drafted wide receivers. Harper gave Seattle a 230-pound presence. Austin gave St. Louis arguably the most electric player in college football last season.

Williamson: The Rams might be going back to their Greatest Show on Turf days. They got so much faster over the weekend. They are a dome team. That is interesting in two regards. The team has had success in the past being fast and multiple on both sides of the ball. Remember, Alec Ogletree is fast, too. But they compete against the two most physical teams in the whole league. Is that the approach to take as the third-best team in the division? Seattle and San Francisco are bangers. You are fighting Tyson here. But the receiver moves were very Sam Bradford friendly.

Sando: One worst-case scenario from a Rams standpoint during the draft was that the team might stay in the 16th overall slot, miss out on Austin and draft a receiver just to draft a receiver. The fact that they moved up to get Austin, then recouped picks in the move back with their second first-round choice gave them the best of both worlds, to a degree.

Williamson: They can use Austin in a lot of ways. Bailey is very NFL ready and they got him with one of the picks they received in the trade with the Atlanta Falcons. They did well.

Sando: Receiver is one of those positions in the division where the gap between No. 1 and No. 4 isn't nearly as much as it was a while back.

Williamson: Yeah, I'll keep the Rams No. 4 for now. They don't have a Percy Harvin or a Larry Fitzgerald. They might not even have a Michael Crabtree in that group yet, and maybe Anquan Boldin would be the best receiver in St. Louis right now. But we will revisit this one.

Sando: No question. The Rams are so different. As we discussed on the blog earlier, they are replacing 46.9 percent of their offensive snaps from last season. And that assumes every returning offensive player still with the team remains on the team.

Williamson: The line is better. They have weapons. This really could be Bradford's make-or-break year.

Teams have added 254 players in the draft since ESPN's NFL Power Rankings last appeared six weeks ago. We've seen Carson Palmer join the Arizona Cardinals and Darrelle Revis join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, among other changes involving veteran players.

Our voters mostly shrugged when asked to update their ballots.

No team moved more than three spots higher (Cardinals) or three spots lower (Cleveland Browns) in the rankings when John Clayton, Dan Graziano, Jamison Hensley and Ashley Fox joined me in casting ballots.

Teams made larger moves up and down individual ballots.

Clayton and I moved up the Cardinals at least seven spots to reflect the change from Ryan Lindley and John Skelton to Palmer, plus continued improvements to the offensive line. The Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets fell several spots on some ballots.

Overall, however, there wasn't a great deal of movement. We did have our disagreements. None stood out more to me than a couple involving Graziano, our blogging brother from the NFC East. He had the Saints significantly lower and the Vikings significantly higher than our other voters ranked those teams.

Dan isn't exactly buying playoff tickets in New Orleans simply because Sean Payton is returning to the Saints' sideline.

"The Saints gave up the most yards in league history in 2012," he explained. "I just think it's a much longer way back for that defense than people give it credit for. Not sure how Payton's return turns them from one of the worst defenses in the history of the sport into a playoff-caliber one in one offseason."

Fair enough. But what about that No. 8 ranking for the Christian Ponder-led Vikings? Everyone else ranked them 17th.

"I don't understand the rush to drop a 2012 playoff team that replaced Percy Harvin with Greg Jennings and just crushed the draft," Graziano said. "Why won't they be good again?"

Harvin would be the more dynamic receiver of the two, in my view. The Vikings arguably gave up too much for the 29th pick in the draft, acquired from New England. And it's debatable, at least in my mind, whether Adrian Peterson can carry the team every week the way he did down the stretch last season.

All things to discuss as the offseason continues. First, we take a closer look at the rankings with May fast approaching:

Falling (10): Cleveland Browns (-3), Buffalo Bills (-2), Chicago Bears (-2), Dallas Cowboys (-2), Detroit Lions (-2), New Orleans Saints (-2), Carolina Panthers (-1), Indianapolis Colts (-1), New England Patriots (-1), New York Jets (-1).

Rising (11): Arizona Cardinals (+3), Kansas City Chiefs (+2), New York Giants (+2), Tampa Bay Bucs (+2), Washington Redskins (+2), Cincinnati Bengals (+1), Green Bay Packers (+1), Jacksonville Jaguars (+1), Miami Dolphins (+1), Oakland Raiders (+1), Philadelphia Eagles (+1).

Unchanged (11): Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, St. Louis Rams, Tennessee Titans.

Deadlocked: We broke one tie. The Bears prevailed over the Saints at No. 13 based on previous ranking.

Like minds: One spot separated the highest and lowest votes for the Texans. Two votes separated highest and lowest votes for the Seahawks, 49ers, Packers, Patriots, Titans, Browns and Jets.

Agree to disagree: Ten spots separated highest and lowest votes for the Saints, the largest gap for any team. At least seven spots separated highest and lowest votes for five other teams. A look at the teams generating the largest high-low disparities:

• Saints (10): Fox ranked the Saints 10th, higher than any other voter ranked them. Graziano ranked them 20th, lower than any other voter ranked them.
• Cardinals (9): Sando and Clayton 20th, Fox 29th.
• Vikings (9): Graziano eighth, every other voter 17th.
• Steelers (8): Clayton 10th, Fox 18th.
• Panthers (7): Hensley 18th, Clayton 25th.
• Cowboys 7: Graziano 17th, Hensley 24th.

Power Rankings histories: These colorful layered graphs show where each NFL team has ranked every week since the 2002 season.

Ranking the divisions: The NFC West remained the highest-ranked division with an 11.0 average ranking for its teams, up from 12.3 last time. Teams from the NFC North were second at 14.2, followed by the NFC South (14.6), AFC North (15.3), NFC East (17.8), AFC South (18.7), AFC West (19.4) and AFC East (21.3).

A voter-by-voter look at changes of at least five spots since last season:

• Sando: Panthers (-6), Cowboys (-6), Browns (-6), Cardinals (+8).
• Clayton: Browns (-6), Cowboys (-6), Chiefs (+5), Cardinals (+7).
• Graziano: Bills (-9), Panthers (-6), Jets (-6), Eagles (+6), Chiefs (+8).
• Hensley: Vikings (+5), Ravens (+6).
• Fox: Jets (-5).

Roster change can be good for teams looking to dramatically upgrade.

The Arizona Cardinals, for instance, have parted with players who logged 8,842 offensive and defensive snaps last season, or 39.1 percent of the total, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The figures are 36.3 percent for the St. Louis Rams, 15 percent for the San Francisco 49ers and 10.6 percent for the Seattle Seahawks.

Those changes, displayed in the first chart, can help us frame in our minds how much these teams expect to change for the upcoming season.

Not all snaps carry the same value, of course. The Cardinals can reasonably expect the new snaps they get from quarterback Carson Palmer to help them more than, say, the new snaps they get from veteran safety Yeremiah Bell.



The 49ers and Seahawks were very good on both sides of the ball when last season finished. They were further along in their development than the Cardinals or Rams. They're hoping to stay the course, for the most part. And so it's natural they would return a higher number of key contributors from last season.

The second and third charts break down the numbers specifically for offense and defense.

We see the Rams in particular will be looking for change on offense. Robert Turner, Barry Richardson, Brandon Gibson, Steven Jackson, Danny Amendola, Matthew Mulligan, Wayne Hunter and Quinn Ojinnaka are among the players no longer on the St. Louis roster after playing at least 300 offensive snaps last season.

Newcomers Jake Long, Jared Cook, Barrett Jones, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Brian Quick, Chris Givens and Zac Stacy will be getting some of their snaps in 2013.

The Cardinals have also turned over quite a bit of their offense. Adam Snyder, D'Anthony Batiste, Early Doucet, Kevin Kolb, LaRod Stephens-Howling, John Skelton, Rich Ohrnberger, Beanie Wells, Pat McQuistan and Todd Heap are among the regular contributors (or projected contributors) from 2012 no longer with the team.


The final chart shows Arizona turning over a somewhat surprising 44.6 percent of its snaps on defense after a mostly successful season on that side of the ball.

Kerry Rhodes, Paris Lenon, William Gay and Adrian Wilson are all gone after playing at least 800 snaps last season. Quentin Groves, Greg Toler, Nick Eason, Vonnie Holliday and James Sanders are gone after playing smaller roles.

Some of these players were ones the Cardinals thought they could replace without declining. They'll be looking for upgrades in some cases.

Third-round choice Tyrann Mathieu will fill some of the void in the secondary. Second-round pick Kevin Minter steps in at middle linebacker, where Lenon had been a regular.

Note: I updated this item to reflect Ryan Lindley's status on the Cardinals' roster. Thanks, @cblack315.

Adam Snyder's release from the Arizona Cardinals made him the sixth player to leave the team's roster this offseason after starting at least 10 games for the team in 2012.

Paris Lenon, Kerry Rhodes, William Gay, Snyder and Adrian Wilson each started at least 14 games last season before departing the roster. D'Anthony Batiste, an unrestricted free agent, started 10 games.

Quentin Groves, Beanie Wells, John Skelton, Kevin Kolb and LaRod Stephens-Howling were part of a group of former Cardinals to start between five and seven games for Arizona last season.

Rich Ohrnberger, Ryan Lindley, Pat McQuistan, Early Doucet, Greg Toler, Reagan Maui'a, Nick Eason, Vonnie Holliday and Todd Heap started between one and four games for the team before leaving the roster.

You get the point. The Cardinals have a new head coach and new general manager. They weren't very good on offense last season. Some of their players' contracts reflect what the team's previous leadership once thought of those players. They've become outdated. And so the Cardinals are turning over a pretty fair percentage of their roster by design.

Matt Williamson, NFL scout for ESPN.com, is back with post-draft thoughts regarding the recently published NFC West positional rankings.

We won't cover every position. Some haven't changed enough. But with the four NFC West teams combining to draft six running backs, Matt and I will begin the discussion there.

Sando: We figured the St. Louis Rams would draft a running back. They ranked fourth at the position in your pre-draft rankings. I was not expecting the Seattle Seahawks to pad their top-ranked backfield with second-round choice Christine Michael and sixth-rounder Spencer Ware. No one can say they reached for need.

Williamson: I really like Michael. He and [San Francisco 49ers fourth-round pick] Marcus Lattimore were the best backs in the draft, I thought. They just have massive red flags.

Sando: To review, Michael was suspended for violating team rules, supposedly overslept at the NFL scouting combine and fell out of favor with the new coaching staff at Texas A&M. Lattimore remains perhaps a year away from playing after suffering a gruesome knee injury while at South Carolina.

Williamson: I thought it was odd for Seattle to draft a back that early. My first thought was that they must think Marshawn Lynch is starting to break down. But he certainly isn't showing it. Look at the Seahawks at this point. It's like my dad. What do you buy him for Christmas? He has everything. Just take what is available.

Sando: And then Seattle followed that up with another back. The Seahawks are saying Ware can project as a fullback and special-teams contributor. Perhaps he replaces Michael Robinson some day.

Williamson: Ware is a very good runner, though. Those LSU backs are hard to gauge because nobody gets enough carries. Stevan Ridley was a third-round pick and everyone was like, "Who?" Ware is a banger. He reminds me a lot of Chris Ivory moreso than a fullback.

Sando: So, I take it the rankings aren't changing for running backs, at least at the top.

Williamson: The Seahawks are still No. 1 and the 49ers are No. 2. Arizona stays third and St. Louis fourth. San Francisco is the perfect team for Lattimore. Nobody is shocked he went there. They've got three guys ahead of him. There is no rush. But Frank Gore is not long for the league. They don't have a lot of other needs.

Sando: We haven't covered Zac Stacy yet. He could wind up playing more than Michael and certainly more than Lattimore this coming season. The Rams needed a power back.

Williamson: I liked Stacy too. Everyone thinks of him as a little guy because he's 5-foot-8, but he is powerful, he gets downhill, he doesn't screw around. It wouldn't blow me away if he led the team in carries. He looks every bit of 215 pounds.

Sando: In Arizona, I'm not taking anything for granted as to how the team plans to play its backs. Mendenhall and Williams have to show they can stay healthy. The Cardinals drafted Stepfan Taylor at No. 140, 20 spots before the Rams took Stacy. But I'm not sure how much they'll ask him to play as a rookie. Arizona also added Andre Ellington in the sixth round. The overall depth appears much improved, at least.

Williamson: It's interesting that Arizona added two backs. They lost two and added three this offseason. With Mendenhall and Williams, you are happy if one of these two is always healthy. The Cardinals are going to be a lot better on their offensive line, which should help all the backs.

Sando: We'll revisit the lines and other positions as the week progresses.