3 reasons why the LA Rams are 1 of the hottest teams heading to the NFL Playoffs

As the 2024 NFL season winds down, the LA Rams (10-6) have returned to the NFL Playoffs once more, complete with all of the cliches and accolades that seem to accompany them to the postseason every time. Despite making the 2024 NFL Playoffs, the team was once more expected to stumble this season. Too many NFL Analysts saw the retirement of All-Pro DT Aaron Donald as a hard stop to any-and-all optimistic projections for the team this season.

And far too many were blinded at the bright future of the San Francisco 49ers (6-10) after two seasons of winning the NFC Championship Game. But ultimately, the same forces that brought the LA Rams back to earth like a meteorite crashing into a field did the same to the 49ers. Attrition, compensation, injuries, and trying to sustain that level of competitive talent is simply too great a task for NFL teams not named the Kansas City Chiefs (15-1).

When the Rams crashed landed in 2022, the team did not panic and throw everyone overboard. The coaches and front office executives were as careful and calculating in disassembling the Rams roster beginning mid-season in that 2022 NFL season as they had been in the assembly of the Super Bowl LVI winning team. The team jettisoned young players mid season who might garner some interest from other teams. Then, as the season ended, the team parted ways with highly compensated veterans. All-Pro ILB Bobby Wagner was release. WR Allen Robinson and All-Pro DB Jalen Ramsey were traded.

The Rams settled on a roster that would be led by All-Pro DT Aaron Donald on defense, and by QB Mathew Stafford and WR Cooper Kupp on offense. That set the stage for many rookies to show up and shine in 2023, which they did. And after the retirement of Donald after the 2023 season and the trade of ILB Ernest Jones just before the 2024 NFL season started, the stage was set once again for another 'rookie'd' roster to flourish this season.

And they did, again.

There should be something said about the way this LA Rams front office pivoted from a team that excelled at setting a fair market value and finding fits in NFL veterans to a team that now has mastered the art of the NFL Draft. Even as other teams try and fail to replicate what the Rams have accomplished by acquiring an elite veteran quarterback (hello, Denver Broncos, New York Jets, and other hopeful NFL teams), the Rams have moved on to restock the roster starters and record setters as deep as Round 6 in the draft.

Still, NFL analysts watched the Rams draft talented roookies, but refused to see what was happening with the team. So, let's help them out by highlighting what makes this version of the Los Angeles Rams roster so very dangerous.