Los Angeles Rams

Los Angeles Rams: Should You Buy the Hype?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Despite the hot start to the season, you shouldn’t buy the Los Angeles Rams hype.

The St. Lou—er—I mean Los Angeles Rams are pleasantly surprising a lot of people. I know it’s easy to get behind this team. After all, it’s their first year back in Los Angeles and the players starred on HBO’s Hard Knocks. However, this team’s fast start could be nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

As it is now, the Rams are 3-1 and leading the NFC West. That’s impressive; I’ll admit that. And I’m by no means trying to dismiss the excitement of Los Angeles fans, who have waited far too long for football to return. However, it’s incredibly early in the 2016 season. People need to calm down a little bit when discussing the Rams.

Are the wins against the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks impressive? Yes. But under Jeff Fisher, the Rams always seem to play well against the NFC West. Last year, the Rams went 4-2 in the division, despite finishing the year 7-9. When they do lost to NFC West teams, it’s almost always in close games.

The Rams’ other win was against a flat-out bad Tampa Bay Buccaneers team. So when you consider all of that, it’s hard to not take Los Angeles’ record without a grain of salt. It’s impressive, yes, but let’s not get too excited about the Rams being a serious contender. This team has resiliency and talent, but is it enough to make the playoffs and finally net Fisher a winning season?

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Los Angeles is succeeding through play-action. However, Case Keenum isn’t a quarterback who can lead the Rams to the playoffs. Moreover, Todd Gurley has gotten off to a slow start. In my opinion, though, that will change as well. If there’s one definitive reason as to why the Rams may be able to pull out an NFC West crown, though, look no further than their schedule.

The Rams host the Buffalo Bills in Week 5 before playing a mediocre Detroit Lions team. After that, they travel to London to take on an uneven, inconsistent mess of a New York Giants team. If we’re being honest, there is a chance the Rams enter their bye week at 5-2—or even 6-1.

The largest issue with this team is the lack of offensive firepower. If this squad gets down early against a good offense—like Detroit or New York—I don’t think they’ll be able to get back in the game. They don’t have a go-to receiver who they’ll regularly go to in crunch time. The lack of that pass-catcher has yet to cripple this offense, but I think it’s inevitable. Also, it feels like only a matter of time before Case Keenum becomes the Case Keenum we’ve all become accustomed to seeing.

Lastly, I think Jared Goff is still the best quarterback on this team, regardless of what the front office tells you. Los Angeles elected to opt for the slow route with Goff and that’s fine. However, he’ll be the starter by season’s end.

At the very best, this is a team reminiscent of the 2012 Colts. Remember that plucky bunch of underdogs? Indianapolis selected a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick. Because of that, few people pegged them as anything more than a team in transition. They exceeded expectations and made the playoffs.

Like the 2012 Colts before them, I think the best-case scenario for the Rams is making the playoffs. They’d likely going one-and-done in the postseason. Given what preseason expectations were for this team, though, that’s not bad for Year 1 in Los Angeles.

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