As the 2024 NFL season winds down, the LA Rams (10-6) have returned to the NFL Playoffs once more, complete with all of the cliches and accolades that seem to accompany them to the postseason every time. Despite making the 2024 NFL Playoffs, the team was once more expected to stumble this season. Too many NFL Analysts saw the retirement of All-Pro DT Aaron Donald as a hard stop to any-and-all optimistic projections for the team this season.
And far too many were blinded at the bright future of the San Francisco 49ers (6-10) after two seasons of winning the NFC Championship Game. But ultimately, the same forces that brought the LA Rams back to earth like a meteorite crashing into a field did the same to the 49ers. Attrition, compensation, injuries, and trying to sustain that level of competitive talent is simply too great a task for NFL teams not named the Kansas City Chiefs (15-1).
When the Rams crashed landed in 2022, the team did not panic and throw everyone overboard. The coaches and front office executives were as careful and calculating in disassembling the Rams roster beginning mid-season in that 2022 NFL season as they had been in the assembly of the Super Bowl LVI winning team. The team jettisoned young players mid season who might garner some interest from other teams. Then, as the season ended, the team parted ways with highly compensated veterans. All-Pro ILB Bobby Wagner was release. WR Allen Robinson and All-Pro DB Jalen Ramsey were traded.
The Rams settled on a roster that would be led by All-Pro DT Aaron Donald on defense, and by QB Mathew Stafford and WR Cooper Kupp on offense. That set the stage for many rookies to show up and shine in 2023, which they did. And after the retirement of Donald after the 2023 season and the trade of ILB Ernest Jones just before the 2024 NFL season started, the stage was set once again for another 'rookie'd' roster to flourish this season.
And they did, again.
There should be something said about the way this LA Rams front office pivoted from a team that excelled at setting a fair market value and finding fits in NFL veterans to a team that now has mastered the art of the NFL Draft. Even as other teams try and fail to replicate what the Rams have accomplished by acquiring an elite veteran quarterback (hello, Denver Broncos, New York Jets, and other hopeful NFL teams), the Rams have moved on to restock the roster starters and record setters as deep as Round 6 in the draft.
Still, NFL analysts watched the Rams draft talented roookies, but refused to see what was happening with the team. So, let's help them out by highlighting what makes this version of the Los Angeles Rams roster so very dangerous.
(3) - The Rams are beating all of the odds
To say that they had it all along would be an outright lie. After falling to 1-4 at the end of Week 5 on the Rams schedule, the chances of making the NFL Playoffs were remote indeed. Unbeknownst to many fans and analysts, the team had fun into the buzz saw that was the NFC North Division, and had lost all three games on the Rams schedule to them before their Week 6 BYE.
At 1-4, the team had dug itself a pretty deep hole that appeared to be its inevitable downfall. Yet, the team did have an early Week 6 BYE, and 2023 proved that the Rams could regroup and recompose itself after a BYE. So the team, and faithful fans, clung to the hope that the team would right itself.
Even after evening up the record after the BYE, the LA Rams stumbled in mid-season. The team lost to the Miami Dolphins by a score of 23-15 to fall back to a record of 4-5. Then after winning once more to even the record, the team was trounced by the Philadelphia Eagles and RB Saquon Barkley to fall back to a record of 5-6. That would be the team's last loss of the season as the team now prepares to face the Seattle Seahawks in Week 18.
Nobody expected the Rams (2-4) to beat the Minnesota Vikings (5-1) in Week 8. But after the smoke cleared and the scoreboard confirmed that the team had won, nobody lost sight over that fact that the win was just one victory. The team was only 3-4, and still had many more wins to achieve if postseason competition was truly the goal.
When the Rams (6-6) hosted the red-hot Buffalo Bills in Week 14, nobody expected the team to shake off a humiliating loss to the Eagles in time to mount any type of resistance to an offense that routinely scored 30+ points in a game, and arrived at SoFi Stadium at the crest of a seven-game winning streak. Once again, when the dust settled, the Rams had outscored the Bills in a shootout by the final score of 44-42.
And once more, the dramatic victory was only one more win, improving the team to a record of 7-6. Losing four of the first five games is a tough hole to climb out of. The Rams have gone on to win nine of the last 11 games on the Rams schedule. And the thing is, the team has yet to appear to play its best overall game. This is a perfectly imperfect team that enters games with perceived flaws and vulnerabilities that are self-correcting.
That makes a vulnerable Rams roster difficult to game-plan against because the Rams coaches keep moving the goal posts. Strategies that worked beautifully in the past are benign and ineffective just one week later. This team is playing with house money, and with nothing to lose, has everything to gain.
Just like 2023.
(2) - The Rams are winning in so many ways
If you had to sit down and award Rams victories to one of the three phases of the game, you would almost certain end the process having awarded multiple wins in the 2024 Rams schedule to each of the three phases of the game: Offense, defense, and special teams. The offense is the easiest aspect to pick out, as you need to know nothing about the game itself and simply view the final score and a simple perusal of the Box Score to determine how many and who scored the points to win the game.
But to discern those victories brought about by strong special teams performances versus strong defensive play, you have to get down into the weeds of a game. Rookie kicker Joshua Karty was the show stopper in both of the Rams victories over the San Francisco 49ers. He kicked the game-winning field goal with just two seconds left on the game clock to get the Rams their first win of the season in Week 3. That win was vital for the team, as it prevented a five-game losing streak to open 2024.
In the second game against the 49ers, Karty shrugged off a cold driving rain in an open-are Levi's Stadium to boot four of four field goals to put up 12 points to beat the 49ers once more. Karty's field goals were the only points scored by the Rams in Week 15. Perhaps the amazing part of the way the Rams won in Week 15 was the the polar opposite of the way the offense put up 44 points to win in Week 14.
The ability to manufacture wins in so many ways was the topic covered by the latest episode of The Coach McVay Show:
Coach McVay's demeanor is a tell now. In the past, McVay's emotions were easy to detect in press conferences and on the sidelines. But if you notice in this episode, McVay has the aura of a relaxed and all-facilities-on-deck NFL head coach, even as the team has ridden the emotional roller coaster all season long.
McVay has a venerable perspective in this episode, a wisdom-laden view that is worth listening to the entire 30 minutes. Coach McVay indicates that rookie RB Blake Corum will get a heavy workload (more on that later), young offensive linemen, and a handful of young defenders who will see a spike in his workload.
The LA Rams may veer towards OC Mike LaFleur calling the offensive plays for his former QB Jimmy Garoppolo, and I'm all for it in Week 18. And I would be a bold-faced liar if I did not share my enthusiasm to witness what that offense looks like, even knowing that the team will be heavily dependant on players who have seldom seen action this season.
But let's give proper credit to ST Coordinator Chase Blackburn and DC Chris Shula too. Blackburn really stepped up his game this season, and the most obvious benefactor in 2024 has been punter Ethan Evans this season. Evans has been dynamically vital to the Rams success streak with his ability to get his punts down deep in enemy territory of late.
I could go on and on about the Rams young defense under DC Chris Shula, and that will be a topic this week. Suffice it to say that the Rams have hit the jackpot on defense for two consecutive drafts. Rams rookie DB Jaylen McCollough and Kamren Kinchens have four interceptions apiece. Rams rookie ILB Omar Speights has grown rapidly into a true starting inside linebacker. And rookies OLB Jared Verse and DT Braden Fiske have been the golden ore of the 2024 NFL Draft.
(1) - This is Year 3 of the third 3-year cycle
How uncanny are the LA Rams over the past nine years? Without a detailed analysis of data, personnel, and financial factors, this team is as predictable and synchronized as the Old Faithful geysers at Yellowstone National Park. What do I mean? The Rams are in the third year of their third three-year cycle. a cycle that propels the team from the ranks of no playoff appearance to a quick appearance in the NFL Playoffs, to a Super Bowl appearance.
The cycle first appeared in 2016, and was cemented as the team hired LA Rams HC Sean McVay in 2017. The uncanny part about this team is that the roster has changed dramatically over the span of nine years. Those changes are not limited to the entire span of time. Right now, the Rams roster only boasts a handful of players who contributed to that Super Bowl LVI victory.
Let's take a look at the Rams record since 2016, and take note of the way the pattern seems to automatically reset and renew after three years:
Cycle I:
2016: 4-12
2017: 11-5, 0-1 NFL Playoffs
2018: 13-3, 2-1 NFL Playoffs, Lost in Super Bowl LIII to NE Patriots 13-3
Cycle II:
2019: 9-7
2020: 10-6 1-1 NFL Playoffs
2021: 12-5, 4-0 NFL Playoffs, Won in Super Bowl LVI over Cincinnati Bengals 23-20
Cycle III:
2022: 5-12
2023: 10-7, (0-1) Playoffs
2024: 10-6, 1 game to play, NFC West Champions
Will the Rams advance to and compete in Super Bowl LIX? While rather early to tell, the Rams will play in the postseason, and will have at least one game in their home field at SoFi Stadium. The team was devastated by early season injuries, and managed to compete well enough to improve to win the NFC West Division. That is quite a feat, as the team opened the season without both starting offensive tackles and starting tight end, without two key defensive backs, and quickly lost their two top receivers.
And yet, here we are. The Rams roster is at its healthiest point of the season. The team has won five consecutive games, and nine of the last eleven games. And thanks to the benefit of clinching the NFC West Division with one game left to go, the Rams have earned the right to sit and rest so many veterans whose heroics have carried the team to the playoffs for the second season in a row.
Are there more intimidating offenses entering the NFL Playoffs? Of course. Are there more intimidating defenses entering the NFL Playoffs? Of course. But I do not believe that there is a more intimidating team entering the NFL Playoffs this year. Just ask the Minnesota Vikings, the Buffalo Bills, or last year's NFC Champions, the San Francisco 49ers.
There is a lot of football left to be played by the LA Rams. There are many reasons for the Rams and Rams fans to have confidence in the team as they prepare for postseason competition.
