Why is it more than okay to be optimistic about the LA Rams in 2024?

I expect the LA Rams to finish in 2024 with a solid final record of 13-4. If you want some details about the game-by-game predictions, you can check out this 2024 prediction article. The 13-4 prediction may be a bit optimistic for your taste, but why is that? The same team skyrocketed from a heartbreaking 5-12 season to improve to 10-7 with no money and a limited number of draft picks.

The Rams were painted into a corner, with no way out. And yet, this team shocked everyone by returning to the 2024 NFL Playoffs, and nearly advanced. Plenty of reasons to be optimistic about 2024. Or are there?

If you talk about it you might jinx it. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. We have a wide range of warning labels and disclaimers that ward off optimism. But where is the same level of caution about pessimistic 'the sky is falling' takes about the same team? While nobody 'knows' what will happen in any given NFL season, we do not that a number of playoff teams won't return to the playoffs, that it's very difficult for teams to repeat as Super Bowl Champions (although the Kansas City Chiefs are aiming to three-peat), and that the way a team ends the previous season often carries over into the new season.

How can the Rams improve with so many forces acting on them to return to average?

The team did not simply toss darts at a dartboard in 2023 through the gifts of a blind monkey. 2023 was a complete change of strategy, emphasis, and the adoption of a new checklist of standards to hold players up to. While we have discussed it at length, it was the edict of All-Pro DT Aaron Donald to "make sure they care" that has become the compass point by which all personnel moves must align.

And a team of passionate players will end up finding ways to win.

So let's break it down for you in simple steps.