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Oh, bettors. You love to poke at us so.
Last May, the odds had the Los Angeles Rams among the bottom of the NFL in terms of win/loss projections. The individual game odds were even more depressing leaving the Rams as underdogs in every single matchup. Odds to win the NFC? Bottom two. Odds to make the playoffs? Bottom five. To earn the top overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft? Top five.
Things didn’t look great.
But then 2017 happened. The Rams made some key personnel changes. They overhauled the coaching staff led by Head Coach Sean McVay.
They fixed everything.
So now with the 2017 season behind us looking ahead to 2018, it’s a completely different story. The oddsmakers have the Rams in the top nine teams to win Super Bowl LIII:
Super Bowl LIII odds - Feb., 2018
| New England Patriots | 5/1 |
|---|---|
| New England Patriots | 5/1 |
| Green Bay Packers | 9/1 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 9/1 |
| Minnesota Vikings | 12/1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 12/1 |
| Atlanta Falcons | 18/1 |
| Dallas Cowboys | 18/1 |
| Los Angeles Rams | 18/1 |
| New Orleans Saints | 18/1 |
| San Francisco 49ers | 20/1 |
| Carolina Panthers | 25/1 |
| Houston Texans | 25/1 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | 28/1 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 28/1 |
| Seattle Seahawks | 28/1 |
| Denver Broncos | 33/1 |
| Indianapolis Colts | 33/1 |
| Los Angeles Chargers | 33/1 |
| Oakland Raiders | 33/1 |
| Baltimore Ravens | 40/1 |
| Detroit Lions | 40/1 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 40/1 |
| Arizona Cardinals | 50/1 |
| New York Giants | 50/1 |
| Tennessee Titans | 50/1 |
| Washington | 50/1 |
| Buffalo Bills | 66/1 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | 66/1 |
| Miami Dolphins | 66/1 |
| New York Jets | 66/1 |
| Chicago Bears | 100/1 |
| Cleveland Browns | 100/1 |
Sure, those are odds coming off of a year in which five of the six NFC playoff teams weren’t in the playoffs the year before, the Rams obviously included. But such is the difficult nature of prognostication.
A couple of thoughts:
- The Dallas Cowboys sure are up there for a team that didn’t make the playoffs this year and won just four games in 2015. I can see the merit in the quality of the team, but the Philadelphia Eagles just won Super Bowl LII. Without QB Carson Wentz. That certainly seems like a major obstacle in their way...
- Uh...is the AFC in this mix? Or are they handing it to the New England Patriots yet again despite Sunday’s loss? The Pats are one of two AFC sides in the 10 most likely teams to win the Super Bowl per these odds along with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That top 10 includes the San Francisco 49ers who started 0-9 in 2017. That means the 49ers who started 0-9 are more likely to win the Super Bowl next year than any AFC team save for the Pats and the Steelers...
- The Chicago Bears are 100/1 just like the Cleveland Browns. That seems...unfair. They’ve got a young franchise QB Mitchell Trubisky who is coming off of an underwhelming rookie season while bringing in a young, offensively-minded head coach in Matt Nagy while an experienced NFL tutor takes the reins on defense. I’ve seen that blueprint work somewhere else before...
We’re officially on the road to the 2018 season with the end of Super Bowl LII. That the Rams are in the more favored group of teams to have a chance to win is less a factor of their current status and more a referendum on the job they did in 2017 turning the franchise around.