Rams can't afford to take rare scheduling gift for granted

The Los Angeles Rams open the season with three primetime games, including Week 1 in Australia against the 49ers. After that, it's off to Philadelphia and back home to host Buffalo, the AFC's leading Super Bowl candidate by the odds. 

Their 2026 slate is projected as the fifth-hardest in the league for a reason. Not only do they barely have a chance to catch their breath in the first five weeks of the year, but the season-ending stretch seems constructed specifically to torment Rams fans. 

It goes like this: Green Bay out of the bye, then Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, then San Francisco on the road, and a pair of games against the Seahawks. The Horns will not play an opponent after the bye with a projected win total under 8.5. 

Mercifully, the NFL granted them a somewhat softer spot in the middle of the schedule. With the choppy waters on either side of that welcome island, the Rams must take care of business against weaker opponents before the going really gets rough. 

Rams face non-negotiable task in "easy" part of the schedule

LA's last five games before the bye include both division matchups with Arizona and a game against the Raiders. Of course, the schedule makers also snuck in a tough "home game" against the Chargers, an odd concept given that the teams share SoFi Stadium.  

The other matchup comes against Washington, something of a wild card given Jayden Daniels' uncertain rebound from injury. Chances are, the Commanders will be decent, but compared to facing Super Bowl favorites, the Rams will take it. 

This "gift" in the middle of the schedule presents a paradox. On the one hand, the competition is obviously expected to be easier. At the same time, that is precisely why Los Angeles can't afford to get lackadaisical. 

With how brutal their schedule is, cleaning up against mostly inferior foes from mid-October to mid-November could decide the trajectory of their season. Falling behind the 8-ball and "making it up later" isn't going to work. Not with that post-bye gauntlet. The NFL has handed the Rams a test they can't beat by cramming. 

It's telling that three of the four games in which they are favored by at least a touchdown come in that five-game sample. Handling the Cardinals and Raiders should be business as usual, but then again, Any Given Sunday is such a compelling NFL cliche that it turned into a movie. 

Hopefully - no, not hopefully, necessarily - the Rams emerge 4-1 at a minimum, entering the bye with some positive momentum and a bit of a cushion. The hardest questions are all in the second half of the exam. 

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