5 reasons why LA Rams will overcome odds and return to playoffs

After restocking both offense and defense, the LA Rams are NFL relevant once more. Here are five reasons why return to NFL Playoffs.

Don’t believe the naysayers who have the LA Rams chances for success in 2020 in the intensive care unit, with professionals standing by to pull the plug. The Rams have restocked the roster with a nice infusion of young talent, and are prepared for another season of very competitive NFL Football. Despite the “rebuilt on the fly” perspective, a recent article written by PrimeTimeSportsTalk author John Devereaux suggested that the LA Rams are most definitely “Pretenders” in 2020.

He awarded the title of “Relevant” to both the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks and designated the Arizona Cardinals as “Pretenders” as well. While the list included the entire NFC, it appeared to be a recap of last year’s playoff teams, minus any NFC East teams. That was followed by Bleacher reports Maurice Moton’s prediction of the LA Rams finishing at 7-9, worse than the LA Chargers who he projects to an 8-8 record.

Last season, the LA Rams had an incredible epidemic of injuries to the offensive line, a decline in production from the team’s three highest-paid offensive players, and a special teams play which fell to the ranking of the bottom third in the NFL. Despite all this, the LA Rams missed the NFL Playoffs by one game. The focus of these projections is a litany of who the Rams lost, with no mention of who stayed or who joined. No, the Rams did not make the 2019 playoffs. Instead, the team got a wake-up call which has reenergized the entire organization. Sleep on the 2020 LA Rams at your own peril.

If the cutoff to current year relevance is to recap the previous year’s playoff teams, that ignores the fact that only an average of 60 percent of NFL teams who appeared in the NFL Playoffs return the following year. With that rate, is there any stock in a belief that 2019 NFC playoff teams remain relevant in 2020?