Ranking Rams' potential wild card opponents from easiest to hardest

Thanks to the Washington Commanders' win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football, the Los Angeles Rams are headed to the playoffs for the fourth time in five years. The Rams won the NFC West and will get to host a playoff game in the wild-card round, which is set to take place two weeks from now.

All but one of the NFC's playoff berths have been clinched with the winner of the NFC South still needing another week to be determined. The Rams could end up as the three or the four seed and that means there are four potential teams they could play in the first round of the postseason.

Let's rank their possible opponents from "easiest" to hardest.

4. Washington Commanders

If the playoffs started right now, the Rams would host the Commanders in the wild card and let me be clear when I say that the Commanders are not ranked as the "easiest" team because they're bad. No, the Commanders are a really good football team and have the ability to go into anyone's house and beat them.

The Commanders are in the first year of the Dan Quinn/Jayden Daniels era and it's off to an amazing start. Washington held off Atlanta in overtime on Sunday Night Football this week to get themselves into the playoffs and to help the Rams clinch a playoff spot as well.

The reason I have the Commanders this low is that their defense is susceptible to giving up big plays. Considering who quarterbacks the Rams and the playmakers this team has, that's a big advantage for Los Angeles if this ends up being the match-up.

3. Green Bay Packers

For the Rams and Packers to meet in the wild card, both teams would need to win in Week 18 and the Commanders would have to lose. It's got to be frustrating for Packers fans that their team has double-digit wins and somehow that's only good for third-best in the division but that's how stacked the NFC North is (more on that in a moment).

The Packers tend to kick things into high-gear as the season trucks along and this year has been no different. Jordan Love has played spectacular football in the back half of the year and nearly led the Packers to an upset win over the Vikings this past week.

The Packers do a lot of things well and they're a well-coached team that can beat any team at any given moment. They knocked off the Rams earlier in the season and both Love and Josh Jacobs had good games that day.

Playing the Packers in the first round would be incredibly tough but there's a chance it happens, unfortunately.

2. Minnesota Vikings

If Packers fans are annoyed about their placement in the division, then just imagine how annoyed Vikings fans must be. The Vikings, who not many people believed in before the season began due to their quarterback situation, have just two losses on the year but it wasn't enough for them to win the NFC North.

No, the NFC North division title and the number one seed in the NFC will be determined in Week 18 when the Vikings and Lions meet up on Sunday Night Football. Now, it's worth noting that the Rams will only play the Vikings in the wild card round if the Rams and Vikings both lose and the Buccaneers win in Week 18.

That would move the Rams from the three-seed to the four-seed and they'd get to host the loser of the NFC North showdown. That is not a scenario any team should want to be in since the Lions and Vikings are both good enough to be the top seed.

The reason I put the Vikings here is that the Rams actually handed them one of their two losses and Sam Darnold has never started a playoff game. It's one thing to ball out in the regular season but doing it in the postseason is a whole other skill that Darnold hasn't gotten to experience yet.

1. Detroit Lions

As mentioned above, the loser of the NFC North showdown could end up coming to Los Angeles for a date with the Rams in the wild card. For that to happen, the Rams would have to lose and the Buccaneers would have to win this week. That'd make the Rams the four-seed and the unfortunate host of either the Lions or Vikings in the first round of the postseason.

The Rams and Lions will always be compared to each other while Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff are playing because of the trade ahead of the 2021 season. Stafford was sent to Los Angeles and won a Super Bowl in his first year with the Rams while Goff went to Detroit and helped turn around a franchise that hadn't done much winning until he and Dan Campbell got there.

These two teams have played three times since the trade went down and unfortunately, the Lions lead the series with a 2-1 advantage. Both of their wins have come in the last calendar year with a wild card win over L.A. in January and then staving off a Rams comeback in overtime in Week 1 of the 2024 regular-season.

While the Rams are due for a win against the Lions, the hope is that the two don't have to meet up in the wild card round.