LA Rams 2024 schedule: Grudge matches, Rookie QBs, lots to love for Rams fans

The LA Rams have a new NFL season on the horizon, and as such we know that the team will need to be fully prepared for another 17-game regular season gauntlet. The challenge with every new season is the same, but is worth repeating. Rams players must not only overcome opponents in 17 games, but must master the elements of unpredictable weather, must overcome the subjectivity of suspect officiating, and must maintain their wits despite the dilemma of the 2024 NFL schedule.

The LA Rams combined in 2022 and the first nine games of the 2023 NFL season to fall to an 8-18 record, their worst streak since hiring Sean McVay to become the team's head coach in 2017. But the team roared back with a passion, winning seven of the last eight games of the season, including defeating the rival San Francisco 49ers by fielding backups, to earn a berth in the 2024 NFL Playoffs.

The surprising success of the team was ahead of schedule, but places the exclamation point on the fact that the team invested heavily in both 2023 and now in 2024 to ensure that the coaching staff is not only capable of coaching players with the best training techniques, but who can develop young players who need to be shown the way to optimize their talents.

Rapidly developing rookies will be crucial to the team if they hope to compete in and advance through the 2025 NFL Playoffs. Evan as the Rams roster improved over the offseason, the same can be said of the rosters of many of the teams 2024 opponents as well. It's that uncertainly that builds the suspense that creates compelling television and narratives for the new NFL season.

This team is certainly deeply embedded in the most compelling tales that are already being told. Will the retirement of Aaron Donald derail the Rams hopes for winning Super Bowl LIX? Will the loss of Donald accelerate the aging process of starting quarterback Matthew Stafford and/or wide receiver Cooper Kupp. Despite being the youngest head coach in the NFL for years, can HC Sean McVay rediscover the 2023 fountain of youth to reignite his passion for the game? And perhaps most of all, can so many of the incredible rookies from 2023 master their trade and perform at an even higher level in 2024?

That's just the tip of the iceberg: