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The Los Angeles Rams head into the 2021 season with one thing on their mind, a Super Bowl appearance. Head Coach, Sean McVay, heads into his fifth year coaching the Rams and he’ll be held to high expectations. It’s an exaggeration to say that McVay’s job is in jeopardy but we expect he’s being evaluated this season. The Rams are a talented football team but have underperformed ever since their NFC Championship in 2018.
Los Angeles will also have a new quarterback under center. Matthew Stafford, formally of the Detroit Lions, now leads the team. Stafford is an upgrade from their previous quarterback Jared Goff, but how will he fit into the Rams offense? Sportsbooks seem to have high hopes for the team, giving them the fourth-best odds to win the Super Bowl. These generous odds seem slightly premature for a team with a new quarterback. Now, the more pressing question is what can we expect from Los Angeles this season?
2021 Los Angeles Rams Futures Betting Odds
Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl Champion Odds: +1400
Los Angeles Rams NFC Championship Odds: +700
Los Angeles Rams Win Totals Odds: Over 10 (-140), Under 10 (+110)
Los Angeles Rams Odds to win the NFC West: +180
Last season, the Rams finished with a 10-6 record, trailing just behind the Seattle Seahawks. This season they’ll hope that Matthew Stafford can push them ahead of the Seahawks and take over the division. It’ll be much easier said than done, the NFC West is a stacked division, with Seattle, San Francisco, and Arizona. Each of the teams within the division is trending upwards, especially the Cardinals. The Rams are pushing to recreate their dominance from 2018, in this season.
Unfortunately, news has broken that the Rams running back Cam Akers has a torn Achilles. Akers led the team in rushing and looked like a promising back but will now miss the entire 2021 season. We’ll have to see if the Rams look to make any trades or free agency moves to pick up another running back. This is a serious step back in the Rams offense but where they really excel is on defense. Having a three-time Defensive Player of the Year on the team definitely helps. Their secondary is no slouch either allowing on average 18.5 points per game.
2021 Los Angeles Rams Offseason Grade: C-
Key Additions: (WR, Desean Jackson), (DT, Bobby Brown)
Key Departures: (QB, Jared Goff), (RB, Cam Akers)
The Rams were left without any first-round picks in the entire 2021 NFL Draft. This left them with one late second-round pick. The moves they made in the offseason didn’t result in much of a change to the team. Their best signing was the addition to the receiving corps in Desean Jackson. That brings the starting lineup at the wide receiver position to, Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, and Desean Jackson. Even before the season has started, the Rams look like a dangerous passing team.
Unfortunately, their loss of Cam Akers is going to hurt them in other facets of the offense. Without a strong run game, the passing game suffers. Unless they can find a viable replacement for Cam Akers, the Rams offense will be slightly above average at best. They’re also in a precarious spot with a new starting quarterback. Matthew Stafford is a proven QB, but this is a brand new system for him. This results in some growing pains inside the offense while he adjusts to his new receivers.
Los Angeles Rams 2021 Preview
What we can expect from the Rams this year in one word is uncertainty. The offense is led by a new quarterback and with the injury to Akers, the running game is questionable. This makes them a fairly unreliable team to bet on. They’re in a tough conference, the Seahawks made strong additions in the offseason and Arizona looked great at the end of the season. This leads us to think that the sportsbooks might’ve got it wrong. Especially when giving the Rams the best odds to win the NFC West.
Los Angeles Rams Futures Best Bets
When planning on betting on futures for the Rams, you should be quicker to take the under on the win total. Currently, the over/under is at ten games, with the odds at -140 to go over. That gives them only six games to lose, we have them losing nine. Even if we were wrong, we have a margin of three games to be covered by.
Remember, this is a new team, not the team from 2018, or 2020. Matthew Stafford will need time at the beginning of the season to adjust, especially in a new system. The loss of Cam Akers hurt as well, he was the starting running back and by far the best on the roster. At this point, we just can’t trust to see them outshine the other three teams in the NFC West.
Read our 2021 Packers team preview and 2021 Buccaneers team preview.
