NFC: East | Central | West     AFC: East | Central | West

With realignment looming, ESPN The Magazine bids farewell to the NFC West (as we've known it).

THE DEAL

1. St. Louis Rams: If all those defensive fixes click, they can start practicing their Bourbon Street strut. Grade: B

2. New Orleans Saints: Great defense. Awesome offense. Plus they know all the best places in the Quarter. Grade: B

3. San Francisco 49ers: After Montana-Rice and Young-Rice, Garcia-Owens will take some getting used to. Grade: B

4. Atlanta Falcons: How long before Mike -- sorry, Michael -- is running the show? Grade: C

5. Carolina Panthers: It really wasn't all that long ago that these guys were good. It just seems that way. Grade: D

THE DIVISION

Motto: Take the Points.

What It Was: Gone With the Wind meets L.A. Confidential. A streetcar named Desire to Hollywood and Vine, then a cable car to Peachtree Street. Chardonnay with gumbo, Spago pizza and Dixie beer -- but somehow you wake up in St. Louis. The NFL had a plan -- it must have had a plan, right? -- when it rearranged the map in this crazy way. Hardly mattered, because for almost two decades -- and 16 division titles -- all roads led to San Francisco.

What It Is: The most exciting division in the NFL. Period. The Rams' attack is a continuous-loop highlight film. The Saints' strut is a parade down Bourbon Street. Both are legitimate powers with plausible Super Bowl dreams. What else? A team rising from the ashes (49ers), another in free-fall (Panthers) and one that has the Next Michael (Falcons). Hey, two out of three ain't bad. Defense? Sure, you gotta have one when the other team has the ball, but people in this division think scoring first. And second. Kurt Warner. Aaron Brooks. Jeff Garcia. Ricky Williams and Marshall Faulk. Torry Holt, Terrell Owens and Joe Horn. The Old West was wild, and so's the new one-five different division winners since 1996.

To Rock It: Points matter. Yes, they do. But at some point you have to play a little D. Last year, the Saints beat the Rams twice behind a front four that was the league's best: DTs Norman Hand and La'Roi Glover, DEs Joe Johnson and Darren Howard. St. Louis got the point and went D-crazy in the off-season, hiring a new coordinator, Lovie Smith, and bringing in eight new starters. That should be enough, right? Maybe not. Remember, the Saints D will be even better this year -- and the Saints O will be a lot better.

This preview is excerpted from the September 3 issue of ESPN The Magazine.