Post-draft power rankings: Rams come out lower than expected...

Post-draft power rankings: Rams come in lower than expected

[theramswire.usatoday.com]

Cameron DaSilva

It’s been an up-and-down offseason for the Los Angeles Rams, who kicked things off by acquiring Matthew Stafford from the Lions before eventually suffering a number of key losses in free agency – including John Johnson, Troy Hill and Austin Blythe. On paper, they look like a better team with Stafford under center, but there’s still plenty for them to prove.

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar ranked every team in the NFL coming out of the 2021 NFL draft and while it’s still early in the offseason, we now have a better picture of how each roster will look come Week 1.

The Rams were slotted surprisingly low, barely cracking the top half of the league. They were ranked 16th, one spot behind the San Francisco 49ers. Here’s part of what Farrar wrote about the Rams.

There’s no question that Jared Goff held the Rams back in ways that Stafford will not, and that may be enough for a deeper playoff-run, but if not, Stafford could find the second half of his career as mixed with personal success and team failure as the first half with the Lions was.

The Rams are tied for the third-best odds to win Super Bowl LVI, so Farrar is significantly lower on them than the oddsmakers are. Looking at the construction of their roster, with stars such as Stafford, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and key role players like Darious Williams, Sebastian Joseph-Day and Cam Akers, the Rams seem like a Super Bowl contender.

But they have a couple of spots on the offensive line to sort out and they did suffer some major losses on defense.

Elsewhere in the NFC West, the Seahawks were the highest-ranked team in the division at No. 12, followed by the 49ers (15), Rams (16) and Cardinals (21). The Buccaneers were predictably No. 1, but the rest of the top five was rounded out by the Bills, Chargers, Packers and Ravens in that order. The Chiefs were ranked sixth, surprisingly.