DAVE GOLDBERG, AP Football Writer
In the last five seasons, the St. Louis Rams have won three NFC West titles, two NFC championships and one Super Bowl, and their 56-24 regular-season record is tied with Tennessee for best in the NFL over that span.
The emergence of the Seattle Seahawks and some pressing problems in St. Louis threaten to make the Rams just another team this season.
The problem is not the departure of Kurt Warner. The Rams didn't win a game he started the past two seasons and
Marc Bulger is more than a capable successor, although he'll probably never reach the MVP level Warner did in his prime. It's more injuries and the erosion of talent that's so prevalent in the salary-cap era.
"It gets more difficult as you win to keep your free agents because it seems like you win, everybody wants your guys," says guard Adam Timmerman. "We've kept a core group of guys and we've kept the guys we need."
Except that this year, the core is smaller than ever and injuries could cause a chain reaction.
The Rams enter the season with serious questions on the offensive line. Andy McCollum, newly switched back to center, and Timmerman are the only sure things. Left tackle
Orlando Pace has been staging his annual holdout; right tackle Kyle Turley is lost for the year with back problems; and center Dave Wohlabaugh was released after flunking a physical.
Those woes are compounded by the fact Warner no longer is around as a security blanket for Bulger. Warner was released for salary cap reasons and landed with the Giants. So the backup quarterback is 38-year-old Chris Chandler, who could rarely stay healthy when he was young.
The line problems also could cause trouble for star RB Marshall Faulk, who is 31 and hasn't played a full season in any of the past four years. First-round pick
Steven Jackson has been very good in preseason.
So the Rams are in the unusual position of underdogs in their division to Seattle, which last season finally exhibited the explosive offense expected when Mike Holmgren took over in 1999.
St. Louis remains at least a wild-card contender because the other two teams in the division -- San Francisco and Arizona -- are rebuilding. The ***** are on the way down, the Cardinals, perhaps, finally on the way up under new coach Dennis Green, who got the Vikings to the playoffs in eight of his 10 seasons in Minnesota.
But injuries to Anquan Boldin and Marcel Shipp, two of their offensive stars, could hinder Arizona.
The Rams will still be fun to watch.
Torry Holt has emerged as the star of "the greatest show on turf" -- his 117 catches led the league last season and were 48 more than fellow receiver Isaac Bruce had. Not only did Bruce slip a little but so did Faulk, who had his second consecutive season with less than 1,000 yards rushing and also averaged 3.9 yards per carry. That was his lowest average since 1996 with the Colts and miles from the 5.5, 5.4 and 5.3 he had from 1999-2001.
In fact, the Rams will probably have to rely even more on defense, led by safeties Adam Archuleta and Aeneas Williams and second-year linebacker
Pisa Tinoisamoa, a coming star. They've been hurt there by injuries, too: cornerback Travis Fisher broke his arm in preseason.
Seattle also has injury problems, particularly veteran linebacker Chad Brown, who'll miss at least four games with a broken leg. Defense will be the key -- it improved last season under new coordinator Ray Rhodes, but still ranked in the middle of the pack.
The secondary is young and good, but Brown's injury only compounds the problems at linebacker. Holmgren has been searching for a man in the middle the entire offseason. Niko Koutavides, a fourth-round draft pick, could be the starter and has been competing for the job with Orlando Huff and Solomon Bates.
There are few questions on offense, although left tackle Walter Jones, like the Rams' Pace, is staging his annual holdout. Both are franchise players who never sign their one-year deal until late in camp.
Matt Hasselbeck emerged as one of the NFL's top quarterbacks last season, throwing for nearly 4,000 yards and 26 touchdowns. Shaun Alexander rushed for 1,435 yards and 14 TDs. The receiving corps of Koren Robinson, Darrell Jackson and Bobby Engram could be outstanding and Alexander had 42 catches in 2003.
What's needed is more success away from Seattle. The Seahawks were 8-0 at home, 2-6 on the road, although the second win, which came the final week in San Francisco, got them into the playoffs.
And, like everyone else, they must avoid injuries.
"Every day you pick up a newspaper there is someone on some team and something that happened," Holmgren said after Brown went down. "You worry about it, but it can't paralyze you. It's just the nature of the beast. You just keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't happen too much to you."
The other two NFC West teams are probably afterthoughts.
The ***** finished 7-9, then got rid of quarterback Jeff Garcia and wide receiver Terrell Owens, who didn't get along. They are left with Tim Rattay and Ken Dorsey at quarterback. Rattay will start, but he is coming back from groin surgery and Dorsey has back problems.
Two standouts: linebacker Julian Peterson, another franchise player holdout who just reported to camp, and running back Kevan Barlow, who has the job to himself with Garrison Hearst now in Denver.
Green's problems in rebuilding what has been the NFL's sorriest franchise for 50 years has been compounded by injuries.
He thought Larry Fitzgerald, the third overall pick in the draft, would give the Cardinals one of the NFL's best receiving corps. So he bypassed drafting a quarterback because he had confidence in Josh McCown, who has all of three starts in two NFL seasons.
But Boldin, who set a rookie record last season with 105 catches, has a knee injury that will keep him out at least through mid-October. And Shipp, the team's leading rusher last season, is gone at least that long with a broken leg, leaving 35-year-old Emmitt Smith, the NFL's career rushing leader, as the starter by default.
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Predictions: Seattle 11-5; St. Louis 9-7; Arizona 5-11; San Francisco 4-12.
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