Are the Los Angeles Rams Positioned For Super Bowl Contention This Coming Season?
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The Los Angeles Rams enter 2025 with expectations high.
“They’re a team primed to make another playoff run,” said Los Angeles Rams ESPN NFL Nation reporter Sarah Barshop in a recent installment of 32 on 32 on Chase’s Sports News.
The new 32 on 32 series is where we will preview every single NFL team’s season with a team reporter.
Sarah broke down how this is a team far different from the group that took home the Super Bowl in 2021-22, anchored by veteran defensemen Aaron Donald and wide receiver Cooper Kupp; both now departed.
Instead, the group is more youthful.
“[Last season’s results said that] they’re a very young team, but also that they were prepared to make this playoff run,” Barshop shared.
However, the Rams also have a clear understanding that one positive season doesn’t always lead into another.
Sarah stated, “Sean McVay likes to talk about: you start again every year. No two teams are exactly the same.”
Though. one common pattern continues to haunt the group: a slow start. After winning the Super Bowl in 2021, this team has started 3-9, 3-6, and 1-4 in each of their past three seasons respectively, and yet have managed to make the playoffs in two of those years.
“I’m excited to see if they can get away from the slow starts they’ve had the last two years,” Barshop added, and continued, “and if they can turn that into a strong season rather than needing to finish strong at the end of the year to make a playoff run.”
Though, there was one message Barshop kept re-iterating: “they’ve added to this team.” Though, that came at the cost of losing perhaps its most memorable superstar who took home Super Bowl 56 MVP: Kupp.
“[After Kupp left] from the fan base, it was sadness because of the joy he brought in 2021,” Barshop said. “However, you look at the injury history, and it’s hard not say maybe this just isn’t the right place for him at WR1.
“No one in LA was happy to see him gone, that’s for sure, whether that’s the fans or whether that’s the team. But I think there was an acknowledgement [that he needed to go].”
(Image credit to People.com)
Now, this Rams offense has shifted gears to a more balanced receiving core led by rising third-year weapon Puka Nacua and now Davante Adams. Though, No. 17 is no longer the former All-Pro he used to be. It’s just a matter of whether he can provide some glimpses of his former self.
“Losing Cooper Kupp, adding Davante Adams. I’ll be curious to see how Sean McVay runs this offense,” Barshop shared. “Is he the Davante Adams that we saw with the Packers, that we’ve seen in stretches [since]? Because if that’s the case, he and Puka Nacua on the field together I think will be a lot of fun to watch.”
Though in the NFL, it’s great to look at the recent Super Bowl champions since LA’s victorious season in 2021: Kansas City, and Philadelphia. What do both have in common? A great quarterback to command the offense and will their team to success. Luckily enough for Los Angeles, they have another.
“As you age, you’re more susceptible to injury, [but] if he can stay healthy, I don’t know why you don’t see the Matthew Stafford you saw toward the end of the year,” Barshop shared. “Rams fans should be very happy that Matthew Stafford is back because, no doubt, toward the end of the last year he was playing like a top quarterback in the NFL.”
Recently on ESPN’s First Take, Stafford was ranked the fourth best quarterback in football by Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, and Jeremy Fowler’s anonymous executives, coaches, and scouts poll ranked him the sixth best among the league’s other top signal callers.
(Image credit to thescore.com)
The only thing that could be standing in their way; a difficult division. San Francisco, minus a down-season a year ago, is a perenial contender that’s appeared in four of the last six NFC Championship games. Arizona is quarterbacked by Kyler Murray and were in the driver seat for the division title for most of last season. And Seattle just added Sam Darnold, who finished top five in both passing yards and touchdowns a season ago.
Although, Barshop believes the Rams’ only major concern is San Francisco.
“I have to see it to believe it [with Arizona] because of the way they faded down the stretch [last year]. [And] I don’t know that Seattle has improved from last year. I think it will be the Rams and the Niners battling it [out],” Barshop claimed.
But for the Rams to get back to a Super Bowl, or win one, Barshop believes they need more consistency.
“It came up almost every single week, and [McVay] would say we’ve gotta be more consistent,” Barshop re-iterated. “They need to have a more consistent offense because if the defense does regress even a little bit, you probably can’t depend on them in the same way they did down the stretch [last season].”
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Chase Coburn
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