Rams face an uphill title task, trying to overturn the “preseason favorite” pattern

The Los Angeles Rams are facing a familiar but uncomfortable kind of pressure as the 2026 season approaches, the pressure that comes with being treated as a contender early. Yahoo Sports highlighted a troubling trend tied to preseason expectations, noting that only four preseason Super Bowl favorites have gone on to win the Lombardi Trophy in February since the 1995 season. For a franchise that is now aiming at the peak of the NFL calendar, the message is blunt: the hardest part may not be earning the favorite label, it is surviving what comes after.

The context for the Rams is not just rhetorical. Yahoo also frames the situation as intensifying after the team’s reported trade for Myles Garrett, a move that indicates Los Angeles intends to tilt the roster toward immediate contention. In the NFL, trades like that tend to raise internal urgency, because they compress the time window for evaluation and improvement. The Rams, in other words, cannot afford to treat the next season as a “build” year.

Preseason favorites are not a formal award in the NFL, but the league’s public narrative matters anyway. Betting markets and media consensus often elevate certain teams as best positioned to win the Super Bowl, and the Rams are now part of that conversation. Yahoo’s history-based point is that the February outcome has not matched the August predictions very often. Even when a team is clearly talented, the postseason rewards execution under variance, health, and matchup specifics.

For the Rams, the most practical interpretation of the “preseason favorite” curse is not superstition. It is the reminder that early projection does not translate automatically to playoff performance. A team still has to translate offseason plans into coherent late-season football, handle defensive and offensive adjustments week to week, and avoid the small sequence errors that decide tight playoff games. The Rams will likely be judged on whether their best unit play shows up when opponents tighten the details.

Myles Garrett’s presence, as Yahoo described through the reporting surrounding Los Angeles’ acquisition, carries an obvious football logic. A premium pass rusher changes the way offenses plan, and it can force more hurried throws or tighter protection schemes that open up other areas for a defense. But a high-end addition still has to integrate into a full system, and the Rams will need consistency from across the roster, not only from one game-changing player.

There is also a roster-building and timing component. When a team invests heavily to accelerate toward contention, the margin for error narrows. Young players and developmental schemes must show enough progress to support a defense and offense that are being asked to perform at playoff speed. The Rams’ challenge is balancing immediate impact with the stability needed to avoid late-season breakdowns.

What to watch next is less about whether Los Angeles is “favored,” and more about whether the Rams can demonstrate that the favoritism is earned in September and held through January. If the team’s defense can maintain pressure, the offense can stay efficient in scoring situations, and the roster can absorb the inevitable injuries and tactical counters of the playoffs, then the preseason label will look less like a burden and more like a reflection of reality. If not, the pattern Yahoo described may feel harder to escape than anyone wants to admit.