LA Rams 2022 schedule has been set, and the 2022 opponents are brutal

The LA Rams have just completed their 2021 NFL Season. One day later, the team already knows who their opponents will be in the 2022 NFL Season. That’s pretty quick work, isn’t it? Well, we have a lot to cover this week, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least touch base on the LA Rams schedule for next season.

Well, what do we know before jumping right in? We can start every schedule analysis by assuming that the team will face all other NFC West teams twice, once at home and once on the road. We know that the LA Rams were the best team in the NFC West Division. That means that the LA Rams will play the best teams in the NFC of 2021 in the 2022 season. That equates to the Dallas Cowboys, the Green Bay Packers, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That’s nine of 17 games already.

The Rams will face the AFC West in 2022, as well as the NFC South. But a funny thing about the 2022 schedule. Since the LA Rams play at SoFi Stadium, and timeshare the stadium with the LA Chargers, the Rams will play 10 of the 17 games of the 2022 NFL Season at home in Los Angeles.

So who do the Rams play where?

Away games

Seattle Seahawks (7-10)
Arizona Cardinals (11-6)
San Francisco 49ers (10-7)
Los Angeles Chargers (9-8)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (13-4)
New Orleans Saints (9-8)
Kansas City Chiefs (12-5)
Green Bay Packers (13-4)

Home games

Seattle Seahawks (7-10)
Arizona Cardinals (11-6)
San Francisco 49ers (10-7)
Atlanta Falcons (7-10)
Carolina Panthers (5-12)
Las Vegas Raiders (10-7)
Denver Broncos (7-10)
Dallas Cowboys (12-5)
Buffalo Bills (11-6)

The Rams will be facing at least one new NFL head coach as the Denver Broncos have fired head coach Vic Fangio. Curiously, the Broncos have asked to interview LA Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell for their now-vacant head coaching position.

Along those same lines, it will be the first occasion for the LA Rams to play against Brandon Staley since he was hired on as head coach of the LA Chargers. The Las Vegas Raiders, who played through the resignation of former head coach Jon Gruden

The schedule will not be complete until we have the dates and order of next year’s schedule.  For now, it appears to be a very difficult schedule, compounded by the fact that the LA Rams won the division. In fact, based on the teams’ 2021 records, the Rams will play just four teams in 2022 who ended this year with a sub-.500 record. They are the Seattle Seahawks (twice), the Denver Broncos, the Carolina Panthers, and the Atlanta Falcons.

The LA Rams repeated as NFC West Division winners just once, climbing from an 11-5 record in 2017 to 13-3 in 2018.  The Rams will have a very difficult time of repeating in 2022, particularly in light of the fact that their draft haul will not include any of the Top-100 rookies chosen in the 2022 NFL Draft.