The Los Angeles Rams have completely fallen apart this season during their title defense. Historically speaking, it’s the worst such campaign in the Super Bowl era.
Nobody has ever defended a Super Bowl more pathetically than the Los Angeles Rams.
At 3-7, their season is over. There is no silver lining and no excuses to be made. Yes, injuries have been significant, but so have the personnel mistakes since the confetti fell in February at SoFi Stadium.
This offseason, general manager Les Snead was tasked with keeping the Rams in title contention. He made myriad decisions, almost all of which have been miserable failures.
Allen Robinson was supposed to be a free-agency steal, but few have been bigger busts in 2022. The Rams watched left tackle Andrew Whitworth retire and guard Austin Corbett leave in free agency, and did little to replace them. Those departures, combined with injuries, have been a disaster. Defensively, the absence of edge rusher Von Miller after he signed with the Buffalo Bills has been devastating to the pass rush, which has amassed only 21 sacks all year.
All of these factors have led to the worst title defense in the NFL’s Super Bowl era.
Only seven teams have ever won the Super Bowl and suffered a losing campaign the following year.
Of them, two were in strike years with the 1982 San Francisco 49ers (3-6) and ’87 New York Giants (6-9). Then there’s the 1968 Green Bay Packers (6-7-1) and 1999 Denver Broncos (6-10) who respectively saw head coach Vince Lombardi and quarterback John Elway retire. Both teams understood they were entering new eras.
The trio most comparable to the current Rams are the ’81 Oakland Raiders, ’88 Washington Redskins and ’03 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All had aspirations of repeating, and each went 7-9.
At 3-7 and with games remaining against the Kansas City Chiefs, Seattle Seahawks (2x) and Los Angeles Chargers, along with a Dec. 19 trip to Lambeau Field, it’s likely Los Angeles loses double-digit games.
If the Rams wind up with 10+ losses, they’ll join the ’99 Broncos as the only defending champ to have so many defeats.
Considering the circumstances surrounding each title defense, head coach Sean McVay and his team are providing the worst showing we’ve seen.