The Los Angeles Rams’ three-year playoff streak has shown that the team, while getting closer every season, has struggled to break its ceiling. Are the Rams actually getting closer to a third Super Bowl title, or are they destined to stay stuck in one place as the Packers had towards the end of the Aaron Rodgers era?
Since returning to postseason play in 2023 following a one-year absence, the Rams have advanced closer to the Super Bowl each year. In the season that kicked off the streak, L.A. lost
to the Lions by one point in the Wild Card Round. Next in 2024, the team narrowly lost to the eventual champion Eagles in the Divisional Round. Then this past season, they lost to the eventual champion Seahawks in the NFC Championship.
During this stretch, the Rams have fielded good teams, only to be outdone by an opponent who was just a tad better. It’s gotta be aggravating for fans seeing Los Angeles lose in the playoffs to such great teams, including the previous two Super Bowl winners, when they were right there competing with them.
Sometimes, things aren’t destined to work out, even with MVP-caliber quarterback play guiding an equally dangerous offense.
The Packers from 2019-21 won 13 games each season, only to fall short every time.
And that was despite getting largely elite QB play from a resurgent Aaron Rodgers:
2019: 13-3, lost to 49ers in NFC Championship
2020: 13-3, lost to Buccaneers in NFC Championship
2021: 13-4, lost to 49ers in Divisional Round
The only difference between those Packers teams and the Rams is that Green Bay lost two of those three season-ending games at home. For comparison, Los Angeles has only hosted one playoff game in the last three seasons, and even that matchup — a wild card game against the Vikings in 2024 — wasn’t played at SoFi Stadium due to the California wildfires.
Those Packers teams greatly underachieved with a top-tier passer under center because they were routinely one major piece away from contention. It’s felt like the Rams have needed something else to help as they’ve advanced deeper in the postseason in the last two years. First, they needed run defense help after Saquon Barkley gashed them in ’24, then addressed the secondary help they needed this offseason.
No team is ever fully complete, as there will always be some weakness to exploit. Yet it’s fair to wonder what it’ll be for the Rams this season if they fall short again.
Will it be the lack of a WR3 behind Puka Nacua and Davante Adams?
How about special teams?
Or will it be something else no one’s thought of yet?
Much like those Packers teams, being on the cusp of another championship doesn’t provide much comfort when it produces tougher questions. A collection of things have kept the Rams from breaking through over the past three years, as Green Bay did during a similar stretch. Unless they fix what has ailed them during this span, the ending of the 2026 campaign will feel just as incomplete as the others.
