To succeed in the new NFC West, a team has to be part Saint, part sinner. Good guys finish last. Just ask former Panthers coach and good guy George Seifert about that.

Problems snowball into avalanches because of the offensive skills of the Rams and 49ers. Kurt Warner of the Rams and Jeff Garcia of 49ers are Pro Bowl quarterbacks instructed by some of the best offensive minds in the NFC. Their receivers have either great physical size or the quickness to burn cornerbacks. Secondary mistakes turn into swings of games that turn into multiple touchdowns by the Rams and 49ers.

Dave McGinnis of the Cardinals and Mike Holmgren of the Seahawks each know that. To survive in the Wild West, you need cornerbacks and pass-rushers, as many as you can find. The Cardinals gave cornerback Duane Starks a $23 million contract and drafted defensive tackle Wendell Bryant in the first round for that reason.

	Isaac Bruce is part of the NFL's most potent offense in St. Louis.

Even though Holmgren used two years of second-round draft choices on cornerbacks, he signed veteran Doug Evans to join veterans Shawn Springs and Willie Williams in the Seahawks secondary. You can never have enough good cornerbacks.

"The thing in the NFC West is that you face big receivers and guys who can go deep for the ball," said Evans, who survived four years in the NFC West as a Carolina Panther.

"When those big guys are going for the ball, you have to contest them. The receivers are big and fast, so you definitely have to get bodies on them. You have to game-plan them very well and play them hard and get in their face every play."

That's where the Saints and sinners theme enters. Since Jim Haslett took over as head coach of the Saints two years ago, his defense has disturbed the flow of the Rams' and 49ers' offenses the most. During the past two years, the Saints and Rams developed a great rivalry. Saints cornerbacks battled the Rams every play. A Rams receiver going across the middle was always met by a thunderous hit from a Saints safety.

Saints defensive backs complained about cheap-shot blocks by the Rams, but that was all in the plan, too. Try to get the Rams receivers out of their flow. Sure, the Rams scored points, but the games were competitive and close. The Saints may not have had the formula for beating the Rams, but at least they had a plan that kept them competitive.

"What the Rams do so swell is after they catch the ball," Evans said. "As a defense, you have to get a lot of bodies around them and you have to play great team defense. I don't think there is a tougher division for a secondary in the league than this one. I faced this division for four years, so I kinda know what to expect from them. You know they are going to catch the ball. So you have to hit those guys once they do."

The Cardinals and Seahawks will need a little time to adjust because they are used to a different brand of football. Each comes from a physical division. The Cardinals are used to the physical style of the NFC East, where the running game often draws the headlines. The more physical a team is in the East, the better chance it has to succeed.

The AFC West is modeled the same way. The Seahawks faced big, physical wide receivers and potent running attacks. So the adjustment will come in facing offenses built more on finesse and quickness. Though the styles of the offenses are different, the philosophy of the 49ers and Rams are the same -- get the ball in the hands of play-making receivers.

Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt of the Rams and Terrell Owens of the 49ers dominate games once they catch the ball. The schemes are so well designed and the talent so brilliant, it's tough to stop them. It creates a different style of game for the Cardinals and Seahawks to play. Forget those 17-14 games. Be prepared for games in which each team scores in the 20s or 30s, even though the Rams and 49ers have excellent defenses.

Last year, the Rams scored 503 points, and only twice did they score less than 24 in a game. Thanks to eight changes to their starting defense a year ago, the Rams are now good enough to win an occasional low-scoring game. Still, their specialty is lighting up the scoreboard.

The 49ers couldn't be more thrilled about an offseason in which they retained virtually every starter except safety Lance Schulters from a 12-win team and added a big, physical cornerback in the first round, Mike Rumph.

What the Rams and 49ers don't know is that their new NFC West partners may surprise them a bit.

The Cardinals are the unknown in the division. First of all, McGinnis is the only defensive head coach in a division of offensive head coaches. He's building his squad around a powerful offensive line, a quarterback (Jake Plummer) who is good in close, fourth-quarter games and a defense filled with young players.

That they finished 7-9 last season was a testament to how hard the Cardinals played under McGinnis. As it turned out, they played the league's third-hardest schedule (114-142), but they got a taste of victory. McGinnis' biggest mission is proving that the 7-9 season wasn't a fluke, that it was in fact a start. Who's to say? No one thought the Patriots would win the Super Bowl, so no team can be discounted until they line up on the field.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, have a chance to be a legitimate contender. For that reason, Holmgren went against last year's instinct of developing Matt Hasselbeck as his quarterback. Instead, he re-signed Trent Dilfer, a proven winner for three seasons, and named him the starter.

Dilfer chose the Seahawks because he believes they can win now.

"One thing that we are is that we have explosive athletes," Dilfer said. "We have guys who are very fast. With this team, I think we have here what we had going for us in 1997 when I was in Tampa. We're coming off some late-season success. We have young, raw, solid athletes. People don't know really what we are so they are not going to be sure how to prepare for it."

Darrell Jackson has emerged as one of the league's better young receivers, and Koren Robinson appears to be ready explode in his second season. "Koren is one of the most explosive athletes I've been around," Dilfer said.

And the Cardinals and Seahawks each ventured big into the tight end market. The Cardinals signed Freddie Jones, a veteran. The Seahawks gambled on first-round choice Jerramy Stevens, whom they believe will catch more than 40 passes.

The NFC West is also a division of top running backs -- Marshall Faulk of the Rams, Garrison Hearst of the 49ers and Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks. The Cardinals know that one of the keys to their future is how well former first-rounder Thomas Jones does after two disappointing seasons.

Too bad the Saints can't get a visitors pass to play a few of these games.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.