When a preseason Super Bowl favorite adds a Hall of Famer to its roster, there’s only one thing to call it: A Super Team.
The Los Angeles Rams opened camp in L.A. on Saturday—eight parts ultimate expectations because of the roster, one part special teams concerns and one part linebacker doubts.
But the looming return of sure-fire Hall of Famer Aaron Donald remains the biggest topic involving the Rams as coach Sean McVay and his powerhouse squad prepare for a season that experts—and moneymakers in Las Vegas, in particular—predict will end in a Super Bowl run.
McVay churned out the usual spiel about Donald, saying he had no details on whether one of the best defensive linemen the NFL has ever seen had decided not to return at 35, after two years of retirement, or step back onto the field to partner with Myles Garrett to form a nickname-worthy front four.
McVay stuck to his process-over-results script, saying the Rams must stay focused and build each day to become a team that earns the championship that many want to hand the squad before anyone has even lined up for a kickoff.
“How can we be inside out more than ever before? You know, the last time I checked, none of that stuff means anything,” McVay said about predictions and what the team looks like at the moment.
“It’s what’s great about the league. People care. There’s a lot of attention, but this is the greatest team sport there is. We got to come together as a team. We got to stay humble,” he said.
“There’s a lot of stuff in the midst of the journey that we don’t control. But I think our ability to be connected, to be courageous, to handle the storms when they do come up and be inside out more than ever before is going to be really important.”
McVay said the team has set its own path and plans to take a deliberate course to its destiny.
“We’re not going to allow the outside expectations to change the way that we approach every day with the way that we work, the way that we enjoy it, have the appropriate mindset and energy,” he said. “And that’s something that I think is really important for us to represent, and I think that’s more felt than anything else.”
Many teams and observers might feel L.A.’s roster is strong, but the Rams have their weaknesses. The special teams aspect was so much of a disaster over the past season that the Rams booted a kicker and dropped the assistant coach in charge of football’s third facet during the campaign.
L.A. left special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn by the side of the road in December because of blocked punts, missed field goal attempts, poor return coverage on kicks and various other breakdowns that cost the Rams games.
That move came after the they changed kickers, shipping out Joshua Karty after he missed an extra point and a 39-yard field goal in one game, bringing up Harrison Mevis, nicknamed “The Thicker Kicker,” from the practice squad early in November.
Meanwhile, the middle of the defense—beyond what is projected to be the best D-line in the NFL—is a core of linebackers weighed down in questions.
Omar Speights and Shaun Dolac, two of those undrafted free-agent linebackers the Rams often discover, are expected to see a lot of snaps, and 2025 offseason pickup Nate Landman was a booming success for L.A., which scooped him up on a one-year deal from Atlanta before realizing his production was top notch and inking the LB to a three-year deal midway through the past season. But the group as a whole has questions.
The team also seems to have failed to directly address another special teams issue: the return game. Xavier Smith’s muffed punt in the NFC championship game against the Seattle Seahawks was one reason the Rams stumbled short of the big game.
But overall, most pundits agree that the Rams won the offseason through free agency, the trade, and the draft, and have the pieces—if the core players stay healthy and the offensive line remains intact—to raise the trophy after the Super Bowl. The big game is slated for their home field SoFi Stadium, where they won it in the 2021–2022 season, but McVay stressed the work that goes into the final outcome.
“I think we’ve got the possibility when you look at things on paper of, you can project based on what individuals have done that you can get excited about,” McVay said. “But that’s not how this game is played.
“This game has played 11 as one. And we got to be able to come together as a team—we got to come together as a unit, figure out what is our identity with how we put all three levels together. How guys understand the rapport that’s necessary to rush together, to play coverage together. And I’m certainly excited about those individual pieces, no doubt about it, but we got to come together as a team.”
