How difficult will Rams find getting off to a fast start in the 2025 NFL season?

(2) - Numerous injuries to Rams offensive line

The Rams front office attempted to restock the offensive line, allowing starting center Coleman Shelton to sign elsewhere and pivoting to former Detroit Lions IOL Jonah Jackson. That necessitated former LG Steve Avila to cross-train to center. But training camp injuries all across the offensive line bled into preseason injuries.

By Week 1, both LT Alaric Jackson (two-game suspension) and RT Rob Havenstein were unable to suit up. During that first game of the season, starting left guard Steve Avila was injured, forcing rookie center Beaux Limmer into the game, and Jonah Jackson to move to left guard. Likewise, backup left tackle Joe Noteboom was injured, forcing the team to promote third-string offensive tackle A.J. Arcuri into a starting role.

By game's end, the Rams' starting offensive line consisted of:

• Left tackle - AJ Arcuri
• Left guard - Jonah Jackson
• Center - Beaux Limmer
• Right guard - Kevin Dotson
• Right tackle - Warren McClendon Jr.

Jonah Jackson would fall to injury, leading to the promotion of Logan Bruss. When Bruss failed, the team would release Bruss and promote undrafted rookie Justin Dedich to take over. By the time the team limped into a Week 6 BYE, 11 different offensive linemen had been called into action. That is 11 players in just five games, in a unit that depends heavily upon continuity. In the first five games of the season, the Rams' offensive line surrendered 16 quarterback sacks and had only broken the rushing attack free for 487 rushing yards.

The Rams would only allow 15 quarterback sacks in the final 11 games of the season. The Rams would gain 1,288 rushing yards in the final 11 games of the season. So it's rather noticeable that the Rams offensive line struggles to stay healthy early in the season played a huge part in the team's early losses.

But wait, there's more.

(1) - Both Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp missed Weeks 3 through 6

Even in the face of all of this early-season turmoil and adversity, the Los Angeles Rams might still have been able to pull out more victories if the team had both wide receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp healthy enough to play. The Rams opened the 2024 NFL season without either starting offensive tackle, with a mess at defense, and on the road facing the Detroit Lions.

The Rams lost that game in overtime by the score of 26-20.

Had Rams WR Puka Nacua not fallen to injury in the first half, the Rams were well on track to steal a win on the road. Instead, the Rams lost Nacua for the next five games, which included the first game back after the Week 6 BYE. Sadly, Kupp would only play the next game, too, and would miss the next four games. He too would miss the game after the BYE.

The Rams would finish the 2024 NFL season with a record of 10-7. But when the Rams had both Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp suited up, the team would play to a record of 8-3. That means that the team would struggle to a record of just 2-4 without the two playing at the same time.

Is this truly a cause-and-effect relationship? You could make that argument for any number of factors listed here. And your argument would be compelling and tough to prove wrong.

But this is not an exercise to find a scapegoat or to play the blame game. The objective here is to determine whether the Rams face a similar risk to a slow start of the 2025 NFL season. And having reviewed many of the contributing factors to 2024's slow start, I am confident that it was all just a streak of bad luck.

How do you feel? Are the Rams at risk to a slow start this season? Or are you feeling warm and fuzzy about the team's chances to find success early in the season? We will soon know the Rams schedule, which will give a lot more data to process either way.

As always, thanks for reading.

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