Determined not to skip a step on the road to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in February at SoFi Stadium, the Rams have wrapped their 2026 ambitions in a shared, unspoken code.
With 203 days separating them from Super Bowl 61, they refuse to sabotage the journey by looking too far ahead.
“There’s a lot that can happen, a lot of that’s got to be done from July 25 through Feb. 14,” defensive tackle Braden Fiske said. “There’s a lot of days in between now and then. So we’ll worry about that a day at a time, and we’ll just keep on chipping away.”
Their mindset is not only understandable but also smart. So we’ll cut them some slack as they cautiously approach what lies ahead, aware of how quickly things can unravel when you look too far down the road.
Even for a team unanimously considered the favorites to win the Super Bowl. Now more than ever, with quarterback Matthew Stafford coming off an MVP season and the additions of pass-rush demon Myles Garrett and lockdown cornerback Trent McDuffie.
It’s no longer a debate about who has the best roster. That distinction belongs to the Rams. The real question now is just how wide the gap is between them and everyone else.
Still, their caution is justifiable.
This is, remember, a team that fell just short last season, undone by their NFC West rival, the Seahawks.
The locker room was heavy with silence after the Rams’ NFC Championship loss in Seattle last January, broken only by quiet tears and the echoes of what might have been. In that moment, the Super Bowl felt both painfully close and impossibly far.
The Rams are understandably keeping expectations at arm’s length as they begin this season, brushing aside the growing buzz that casts them as Super Bowl favorites.
“What I won’t allow us to do is to say that this season is going to be determined successful or a failure based on whether we win a Super Bowl,” coach Sean McVay said. “I’m not living that way. I’ve gotten caught up in things like that before.”
That’s the internal message. And it makes perfect sense.
Externally? It’s much simpler.
Anything short of a Super Bowl will be a disappointment.
Full stop.
The Rams’ wide receiver tandem of Puka Nacua and Davante Adams might not be the NFL’s best duo, but you can count on one hand the others in that conversation.
Stafford was the NFL’s best quarterback last year, and by all accounts he comes into this season as healthy as he’s been in a long time. Kyren Williams has posted three straight seasons of 1,000 or more rushing yards. The tight end room is as deep as any in the NFL, and the offensive line is a top-15 unit.
Garrett’s addition to the defensive line makes their front four the NFL’s best. Whatever cornerback deficiencies the Rams had last year vanished upon acquiring McDuffie and Chiefs teammate Jaylen Watson in March. In the blink of an eye, that position went from weakness to strength.
The Rams are the NFL’s gold standard. And on paper, it doesn’t appear close.
So, yes, it’s Super Bowl or bust.
None of which needs to be explained to the Rams. Truth be told, they not only share that sentiment but they also welcome it. It beats being the Cardinals, Jets or Dolphins, where the only expectation is how bad can it actually get?
“It’s better to have that pressure than not,” Fiske said.
That partially explains how carefully they will navigate the next six months or so. Those expectations come with responsibility. Among them, not self-sabotaging yourself by getting so caught up in the finish line that you veer completely off course.
“You know the potential the team has,” Watson said. “But we have to maximize it, and that starts today, taking it one day at a time, laying brick by brick and seeing what our potential could be.”
That’s fine.
But make no mistake: It’s Super Bowl or bust for the Rams.
