The Los Angeles Rams will play the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL’s annual championship game, this Sunday. The game will be played in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, following the NFL’s move to the city after the Rams’ controversial move to St. Louis. This is Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s first time playing host to an NFL championship game, and the first time the city has hosted a Super Bowl. This Rams’ title game is unlike any other, however. It has major implications for the NFL’s future.
The Los Angeles Rams are one of the most surprising teams of the 2016 NFL season, but that’s not entirely their fault. The Rams’ front office made some franchise-altering moves this offseason, including hiring Sean McVay as head coach, trading for Los Angeles native Jared Goff, and signing playmakers Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods via free agency. This is a new era in Los Angeles, and it’s hard to know exactly how it will shake out, but the Rams are sure to make a statement in the 2016 season.
The Los Angeles Rams were a playoff team for the first time in over a decade last year, but they weren’t satisfied with a one-and-done appearance. Instead, the team went out and made a bold move which left the entire league buzzing. On July 15th, the Rams traded from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from from
The Los Angeles Rams had a whirlwind offseason.
The Rams chose to go all-in on a completely new approach after failing to reach the Super Bowl in back-to-back seasons (2019 and 2020). They think head coach Sean McVay is the perfect guy to take them back to the Super Bowl, but they believe a quarterback change is essential.
Matthew Stafford is the Rams’ newest starting quarterback, thanks to two first-round selections and a slew of dead salary space. For the LA front office, it was a risky, rash decision. However, a sizable portion of the national press has praised it.
The Los Angeles Rams are expected to win the Super Bowl this year, according to NFL expert Peter King.
Head coach Sean McVay with Matthew Stafford | Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
“FMIA: Sorry, Bucs and Chiefs,” he wrote over the offseason. In his article “Here’s Why the Super Bowl Will Be Rams-Bills, And More NFL 2021 Predictions,” where he selects and forecasts the next season, NFL expert Peter King explains why the Rams (not the Chiefs or Bucs) are the team to beat in 2021.
In 2018, I believe we will see a Rams offensive similar to that. There are a few distinctions between now and then. The Rams possessed the league’s 19th-ranked defense at the time. The Rams are coming off a season in which their defense was ranked first in the league. The Chargers hired coordinator Brandon Staley, but the three greatest defensive players are back: all-world Aaron Donald and one of the top cornerback tandems in the league, Jalen Ramsey and Darious Williams. And, compared to previous year’s model, the quarterback is new and better.
Simply stated, Matthew Stafford provides McVay, one of the game’s sharpest offensive minds, with the first opportunity in his five seasons as coach to feel comfortable calling every play on his play sheet. Everything. Stafford has the arm strength to make every throw, as well as the intelligence to judge when to make one throw over another.
Pro Football Talk’s Peter King
High praise for a club that has only won one playoff game in the last two seasons and a quarterback who has never won a postseason game.
Are the Rams really superior than the Buccaneers, Chiefs, and Bills?
Following Stafford’s arrival, it’s fair to expect the Rams to have a successful season. He’s a much better quarterback than Jared Goff, and early indications from training camp suggest that McVay is ecstatic with his new starter.
That isn’t to say that there isn’t competition in LA. The AFC is stacked with great quarterbacks, and Tom Brady and the Buccaneers are coming off an incredible 2020 season.
If the Rams want to be considered legitimate Super Bowl contenders, they’ll have to accomplish a lot more than “simply be better than last year.”
Put a stop to the McVay-Stafford craze.
New HC-QB combinations are usually intriguing, but the McVay-Stafford buzz seems to be at an all-time high. The Rams should be a strong football team in 2021, but putting them ahead of the Buccaneers, Chiefs, Bills, and even the Packers seems a little extravagant.
As King points out in his piece, the Rams’ offense has regressed dramatically since McVay took over as coach in 2018. Through the first 12 games of 2018, LA went 11-1, averaging 34.9 points per game. Since then, they’ve gone 24-17, averaging 23.9 points per game.
Is Stafford capable of assisting the Rams’ offense in scoring more points? Absolutely. Is he capable of scoring ten points or more on his own? No, most likely not.
The best course of action here is to wait and see whether the Rams can really compete with the best teams in the league. Before they can be called Super Bowl favorites again, they must show that they are legitimate.
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