Power rankings across the internet this offseason have been down on the Rams. Los Angeles has been consistently slotted in the bottom half of the NFL, receiving little praise from analysts leading up to the regular season.
Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire took a different approach for his latest power rankings, however. He slotted teams from No. 1 to 32 based on Football Outsiders’ widely used DVOA metric, which measures a team’s performance on every single play compared to league-average based on specific situations.
In Farrar’s DVOA-based power rankings, the Rams came in at No. 13 with a projected 3.2% DVOA and average wins of 8.4.
Who knows what the Rams are these days? They could be the 13-3 squad that made it to Super Bowl LIII at the end of the 2018 season, or they could be the 2019 team that finished 9-7, out of the playoffs. FO thinks the 2020 Rams will be more like the 2019 Rams, and I find it difficult to disagree. Teams that drop from an offensive DVOA of over 20% to under 5% in a one-season stretch don’t tend to revert to their best form, and Jared Goff’s obvious limitations could put a pin in that. FO has the Rams projected with a total DVOA of 3.2%, and an Average Wins total of 8.4.
Expectations have undoubtedly been set lower for the Rams entering the regular season after the team went 9-7 in 2019, missing the playoffs for the first time under Sean McVay. But its wouldn’t be surprising to see them return to the postseason despite having the 20th-best Super Bowl odds in the league.
With McVay, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and Jared Goff still in the mix, the Rams have the talent to make a playoff push, even in a highly competitive NFC West.
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