With Aaron Donald Back, Rams Become One Of The Strongest Super Bowl Favorites In Recent Years

If you're picking anyone but the Los Angeles Rams to win Super Bowl LXI, you're just trying to be different.

It's rare for a team as strong as the Rams to have an offseason as good as they did. They finished last season as the second-best team in the NFL and then added four top-tier starters on defense.

We thought that the Rams were done with big moves when they fixed their cornerback problem in March. They traded for Trent McDuffie, who briefly was the NFL's highest paid cornerback ever after Los Angeles extended him, and signed Jaylen Watson. Then, as a bonus over the summer, the Rams added probably the greatest defensive line combination in league history. That became official when Aaron Donald came out of retirement on Sunday.

Have there ever been two players on the same defensive line as dominant as Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald? While there's no guarantee Donald is the same force he was after two seasons off and at age 35, he'll also have the luxury of teams doubling Garrett, who set the NFL's single-season sack record a year ago. And if teams insist on doubling Donald, good luck slowing down Garrett.

The Super Bowl this season is in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. At this point it would be a surprise if the Rams aren't playing on their home turf on Feb. 14.

Rams are a very strong Super Bowl favorite

The Rams aren't guaranteed a Super Bowl just because they have the best team, of course. Preseason favorites have fared much worse than you'd think over the past three decades. If the 2007 Patriots, one of the best teams of all time, didn't win a Super Bowl then nobody is guaranteed to win it.

But the Rams have done everything they can do. Matthew Stafford was the NFL’s MVP this season. His receiver duo of Puka Nacua and Davante Adams are back. The Rams ranked fourth in defensive DVOA this season and added a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year in Garrett, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year in Donald and a strong cornerback duo to fix the biggest problem on the roster last season. And they’re coached by Sean McVay, a Super Bowl champion who also has an NFL Coach of the Year award.

The Rams’ roster isn’t perfect. Their special teams were awful last season and might be again. The offensive line has depth concerns. The receiver room is very reliant on Nacua and Adams staying healthy. One major injury to Stafford and the Rams would be nowhere near a championship-level team. There’s also at least a little concern that Stafford hits the wall at age 38. But every team’s concerns are much worse than what Los Angeles is worrying about.

We almost always enter an NFL season with a few teams looking like legitimate contenders. This season there’s only one team that is a true contender, with everyone else chasing them.

Who can challenge the Rams?

The funny thing is the Rams’ biggest obstacle is in their own division.

The Seattle Seahawks won last season’s Super Bowl after beating the Rams in the NFC championship game. All three games between those teams last season would have had a different outcome if one crucial play went the other way, so there wasn’t much separation. But the Seahawks got the crown, and are still the same well-coached, deep team that was a historically strong champion last season. They’re not going to be scared of the Rams.

The Buffalo Bills have a shot because they have Josh Allen, a quarterback who can turn any game in his team’s favor. Maybe this is Lamar Jackson’s time to finally win a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens. Perhaps a team like the Detroit Lions, with all their blue-chip talent, could upset the Rams in January. There are other good teams in the NFL outside of the Rams. But the Rams are undisputedly the best team in the NFL going into the season. There is no reasonable argument otherwise.

Donald’s return might not have even been necessary. The Rams were the No. 1 team before he talked about coming back. Donald has always kept himself in great shape, even in retirement, and even 90% of the Donald we last saw could be an All-Pro. It’s practically unfair.

There’s pressure that goes with being such a clear favorite. Anything short of a Super Bowl championship will be a disappointment for the Rams, and that can be a heavy burden. But we’re looking at a team that can be more than just a Super Bowl winner. The 2026 Rams have the potential to be one of the greatest champions of all time.