With the ups and downs the Seattle Seahawks have faced thus far, it may feel a little strange that a win this weekend would propel the team into a share of the top spot in the NFC West.

Big Ray: What makes Seattle Seahawks’ Leonard Williams so difficult to block

But that will be the case when the 5-5 Seahawks host the first-place Arizona Cardinals (6-4) at Lumen Field on Sunday.

The Cardinals are coming off a terrible 4-13 season, but have taken advantage of their NFC West peers’ slow starts to be perhaps the most surprising division leader heading into Week 12. The Seahawks, Rams and 49ers will take on the each played in three matches. draw for the second.

So what exactly is going on with the NFC West? Is it just a matter of teams beating each other up? Or is it just a bad year for the group?

Bump and Stacy asked the FOX football analyst and former NFL player on Friday Bucky Brooks for his thoughts on the state of the NFC West.

“I think it’s obviously very competitive, but you have teams in transition,” he said. “You have the Seattle Seahawks in transition with a new head coach (Mike Macdonald). You have the Arizona Cardinals (in their) second year under Jonathan Gannon. (The) Los Angeles Rams are trying to turn around their roster with a bunch of young guys playing defense while still sticking with kind of an older offense with (quarterback) Matthew Stafford and (wide receiver) Cooper Kupp and those guys. And then the San Francisco 49ers are battling the Super Bowl hangover, where they are extremely disappointed because they couldn’t get it done against the Chiefs the second time they faced them in the Super Bowl.

While no one in the division appears to be a true Super Bowl contender in terms of record, the four teams do have a combined winning record at 21-19 and none have a losing record individually.

“It’s not necessarily that there’s no talent,” Brooks said. “I just think you have a division that in a year or two will be one of the best in football, but it takes time to get there. So if you have a chance to win it, you want to win it now while you’re still rebuilding and retooling your roster for things you hope will be bigger in the future.

View schedule

With the division looking like it could be a final week and possibly even a tie, here’s a look at the remaining strength of each team’s schedule, their division record, division games remaining, toughest overall game remaining, and easiest overall game remaining . The strength of the schedule rankings is through Tankathon.

Arizona Cardinals (6-4)

SOS: 19th (opponents winning percentage of .479)

Division record: 2-0

Remaining division games: at Seahawks, vs. Seahawks, Rams, 49ers

Toughest remaining game: at Vikings

Easiest remaining match: vs. Patriots

Seattle Seahawks (5-5)

SOS: 9th (.549)

Division record: 1-2

Remaining division games: vs. Cardinals, at Cardinals, at Rams

Toughest remaining match: vs. Vikings

Easiest remaining game: At Jets

Los Angeles Rams (5-5)

SOS: 11th (.548)

Division record: 2-1

Remaining division games: at 49ers, vs. Cardinals vs. Seahawks

Toughest remaining match: vs. Bills

Easiest remaining game: At Jets

San Francisco 49ers (5-5)

SOS: 3rd (.620)

Division record: 1-3

Remaining division games: vs. Rams, at Cardinals

Toughest remaining match: vs. Lions

Easiest remaining match: vs. Bears/at Dolphins

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player at the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10am to 2pm or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

NFC West Check-In: 49ers lock out two stars vs. Packers

Follow @ZacHereth