Los Angeles Rams 2026 Outlook: The Field Loved Them Last Year, Too

The Los Angeles Rams went 12-5 in 2025 and made the playoffs for the third straight season under Sean McVay. Matthew Stafford won MVP — he led the site's MVP ballot tally with 26 of 100 picks, the rare case where the field's favorite was also the winner. Then Los Angeles added Myles Garrett, drafted a quarterback at No. 13, and became the most confidently predicted team in the sport.

That confidence has a track record, and it is not flattering. Across every Rams-tagged claim the site has graded, three buckets tell the story: playoff picks are 21-for-21 (100 accuracy) but score zero skill, because "the Rams make the playoffs" is also what the naive baseline says; division-winner calls sit at 11.1 accuracy over 18 graded; and Super Bowl picks on the Rams are 0.0 over 17 graded calls. Seattle won the title.

Quarterbacks

Nobody in the database questions the starter. Stafford is QB1 in every depth-chart call on file, and the argument is entirely about production. Chris Broussard says "I think he could have 39 touchdowns, 41." Pat Fitzmaurice: "Stafford seems well positioned for another big season."

The fantasy side is the loudest bear case on any Ram. Derek Brown is out — "Drafting Stafford this season feels like exclusively chasing last year's production" — and Andrew Erickson is blunter: "Stafford is a no-go for me across all formats." FantasyPros splits the difference: "He can still be a QB1 in 2026, but... do not chase last year's MVP season up the draft board." All of these are pending. For context on the people making them, Erickson carries a 22.08 MissedTakes Score over 143 graded takes and Brown 35.62 over 114, both on the site's overall top ten.

The real competition is for QB2, and the reporting flipped twice inside three weeks. Blaine Grisak wrote on Aug. 19 that "if Simpson continues to play well, it becomes very difficult for the Rams to justify having him behind Bennett," then on Aug. 29 that Ty Simpson "will now sit behind Stafford and learn what it means to be the Rams' quarterback." Eric Williams called it outright — "Stetson Bennett Commands Offense, Cements Role As Rams' Backup QB" — and Steven Ruiz agreed: "Simpson has the higher upside, but I'd roll with Bennett for now." Daniel Jeremiah framed the stakes: "If they end up making Ty the number two... that'll tell you that he is way ahead of schedule." Shannon Sharpe went further and expects the Rams to try to trade Bennett.

Quarterback is the single most-covered Rams position group here: 130 takes, 38 of them graded, averaging 80.5 accuracy.

Wide receivers

Puka Nacua is a consensus. PFF's Nathan Jahnke has him first at the position — "Puka Nacua leads all wide receivers" — and Broussard, Greg Jennings and Bucky Brooks all picked him for Offensive Player of the Year. The only pushback is about cost, not talent: a FantasyPros contributor calls him "my biggest bust candidate, although this is entirely about price rather than talent."

Davante Adams is where opinion actually divides. Henry McKenna calls him "the best WR2 in football." Jahnke sees regression: "Adams scored a league-high 14 touchdowns last season, but his receptions and receiving yards per game were his lowest since 2015." Erickson agrees he is "far more likely to fall off than to replicate what he did last year," while Mike Fanelli expects him "finding the end zone 10 or more times" again. Behind the top two, the room is thin enough that Zachary Pereles described Tutu Atwell — since swapped to Miami — as "at best, a distant third option."

Receiver is the second-heaviest Rams beat: 111 takes, 45 graded, 66.6 average accuracy.

Running backs

One name, over and over. Blake Corum is the most-recommended Ram in fantasy content on the site — Pat Fitzmaurice ("This is a bet worth making"), Erickson ("Corum would be a locked-and-loaded top-10 fantasy RB"), Kyle Zeigler, Jeremy Munter and FantasyPros all buy in, and PFF's Nic Bodiford projects "a near-50-50 split with starting running back Kyren Williams." Kevin English takes the other side of that same split: Williams' "PPR points per game have declined each year, from 21.4 to 17.4 to 15.7."

The graded sample here is nine takes at 96.3 accuracy. That number looks spectacular and means very little — nine is not a sample. No fullback takes exist.

Tight ends

Terrance Ferguson is the designated breakout. Bodiford calls him "a high-end TE2 with weekly TE1 potential"; Skyler Carlin says he is "essentially the WR3 in a Sean McVay offense"; Mike Clay tags him as this year's late-round tight end hit. Two dissents worth logging: Lawrence Iacona says "the offensive structure works against him," and Fitzmaurice calls the role ambiguity disqualifying — "undraftable in all but the deepest fantasy leagues." Rookie Max Klare draws the opposite forecast; Jahnke expects "he will likely be a healthy inactive each week," and Erickson lists him under "Rookies to Avoid."

Five graded tight end takes on this roster. Everything above is pending.

Offensive line

Thin, and mostly indirect. Nick Shook ranked the Rams fourth among his top five offensive lines and expects Warren McClendon Jr. to take over at right tackle. Two graded calls on McClendon's extension — from Travis Rodgers and Doug "D-Mac" McKain — both hit at 100 accuracy and zero skill, since the baseline for "player stays put" is 100.

The interesting failure is collective: nearly every mock draft in the database had the Rams taking a tackle at 13. Field Yates, JP Acosta, Gregg Rosenthal and Fitzmaurice all mocked Monroe Freeling there; David Harrison and Shook took Francis Mauigoa; Brooks took Spencer Fano. Los Angeles took a quarterback. Rams mock-draft calls as a whole grade out at 53.6 accuracy over 65 graded picks. Brent Sobleski's hedge is the honest version of the unit: "As long as the Rams' offensive tackles hold up, this squad enters the 2026 campaign as the favorite."

Defensive line

Two subjects: Garrett and the ghost. Myles Garrett draws MVP picks from Brooks ("Miles Garrett is your MVP") and Danny Parkins, who adds "I feel like 25 plus sacks is in play." McKenna calls him "the best defensive player in the NFL."

Aaron Donald's unretirement generated a run of movement calls — Mike Florio wrote in mid-August that "it still seems inevitable," Charean Williams read the tea leaves off his facility workouts, and Eric Williams now pencils him into the starting five alongside Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske. Nick Wright: "even if he is 65% of old Aaron Donald, that makes him a top five defensive tackle in football." Will Brinson and Matt Severance both like him for Comeback Player of the Year.

Note the grading gap: 65 edge-tagged takes, only 12 graded, averaging 16.7 accuracy — and those graded ones are old mock-draft calls, not evaluations of this defense. The Donald and Garrett takes are all pending.

Secondary

Almost nothing checkable. Eleven cornerback takes (five graded, 24.9 accuracy) and eight safety takes (one graded) — most of them are Grisak's 53-man roster list naming Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson and Emmanuel Forbes, plus a handful of mock picks the Rams never made. The one real evaluation is Nick Wright in March, ungraded: McDuffie is "a good outside corner and the single best slot corner in football."

Special teams

Four kicker takes, all about Harrison Mevis and all pending: Andrew Swanson names him "my top sleeper kicker for 2026," and Steve Krebs likes him to finish top 10 given the offense. Grisak flagged Xavier Smith as the likely punt returner after "his game-changing 40-yard return." Nothing here is graded. That is the whole file.

The rookie class

Ground truth: Ty Simpson (1-13), Max Klare (2-61), Keagen Trost (3-93), CJ Daniels (6-197), Tim Keenan III (7-232).

Simpson is the story, because the industry was wrong about him in a specific direction — too low. Albert Breer said he "probably goes somewhere in the second round" (42.04). Mike Mayock got the team right and the round wrong: "he, ideally, would go on the second round to the Rams and sit behind Matthew Stafford for two years" (42.04). John Middlekauff said he wouldn't go on Thursday night at all (0.0). The winners were the aggressive ones: Jeff Cavanaugh called him a possible top-11 pick (91.7) and Nick Wright said top 45 (100). Breer has since softened on the Rams' side of it — "I'm not fully sold that that's 100% a hit with the 13th pick, but... he's looked good in the preseason."

For the rest: Jahnke expects Daniels makes it "only if the Rams keep seven wide receivers," Eric Edholm says "you can't count out the rookie," and Grisak thinks Keenan could be cut and stashed. Trost appears exactly once, on a roster projection.

The outlook

The 2026 win-total consensus table is empty — nothing from this season has been graded yet. What exists is a pile of pending numbers, and they cluster high.

Division picks are close to unanimous: Rosenthal ("I think they do have the edge over the Seahawks"), Broussard, Dave Dameshek, Jason McIntyre ("NFC West. This is a layup"), Mark Willard, Ephraim Salaam, Colin Cowherd and more. The holdouts are Wright (Seahawks 14-3, Rams second at 11-6) and Richard Sherman, who has Los Angeles as a wild card. Frank Schwab ranked the Rams No. 1 in his preseason power rankings and picked them to win it all; Brooks calls them "the prohibitive favorite to hoist the trophy in their home stadium."

Here is the part worth holding onto. Division-winner calls are among the worst-scoring claims on this site: Cowherd is at 5.88 accuracy over 53 graded division picks, Wright at 12.5 over 14. Wright's season win totals grade out at 43.63 accuracy with a *negative* 10.42 MissedTakes Score over 50 graded calls; Rosenthal's are 48.5 over 18. And every one of the 17 graded Super Bowl picks on the Rams — from Wright, McIntyre, Rich Eisen, Brandon Carney, Sam Kienzle — scored zero.

The Rams may well be the best team in the NFC. They were also the consensus best team in the NFC in January, and the season ended with Seattle holding the trophy. Come back in February and we will grade it.