Way-too-early Super Bowl 61 forecast: Rams aim to cash in at SoFi, leaving Seahawks repeat in question

With the NFL regular season still months away, USA TODAY Sports is already looking ahead to Super Bowl LXI, and its latest “way-too-early, way-too-specific” prediction does not include the Seattle Seahawks as the winners. The Seahawks are the defending champions, but the forecast instead lands on a Los Angeles Rams victory in Inglewood, where the game will be played at SoFi Stadium on February 14, 2027.

In the projection, the Rams take advantage of home-field familiarity and run through a high-powered passing script featuring Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. The predicted box score has Stafford throwing for 255 yards and three touchdowns, while Nacua and Adams combine for 14 catches, 170 yards and three scores. The setting is the Rams’ familiar Southern California stage, with the forecast treating the venue as a recurring advantage heading into the next title game.

The title-game opponent in this forecast is the Baltimore Ravens, and the story line is mostly about timing and efficiency. The prediction has Lamar Jackson contributing two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown, but Baltimore’s late-season end comes with two specific obstacles: stalled third-down conversions and a missed field goal. The projection states the Ravens go 6-for-16 on third downs and Tyler Loop misses a 46-yard attempt, a combination that prevents a comeback and shifts the Lombardi Trophy back to Los Angeles.

Where the Seahawks fit into this early picture is mostly in the odds and the framing. In this same June forecast, early futures pricing has the Rams ahead of the pack, with Seattle still viewed as a top contender at BetMGM (+1,100). Baltimore is listed just above and around the same tier (+1,100), while Buffalo follows in the next grouping (+1,000). The headline question, “Will Seahawks repeat?” is answered indirectly: if the Rams are winning Super Bowl LXI, Seattle’s repeat run would end somewhere in the postseason, even if it starts from the top of the early betting conversation.

It is important to stress what this kind of projection does and does not do. A “way-too-early” Super Bowl prediction is built in June 2026, before the NFL draft, before most free-agent movement settles, and long before injuries, performance swings, and schedule matchups separate contenders from pretenders. So while the Rams-versus-Ravens outline reads like a detailed game plan, the real NFL season work will determine whether Seattle’s roster and identity can hold up through the full year and, if it does, whether it can survive a postseason landscape that typically punishes even the best teams for one or two slow stretches.

For Seattle fans, the next step is straightforward: watch how the Seahawks handle continuity and replacement needs as the offseason progresses, because repeating at this level is rarely about one single change. For the rest of the league, the takeaway from the USA TODAY Sports forecast is that SoFi Stadium and Los Angeles offensive firepower are being treated as central storylines as Super Bowl LXI approaches. If the Seahawks are going to refute that forecast, they will likely need to combine championship-level defense with reliable down-to-down offensive production, not just in the playoffs, but in the regular season that gets them there.