The 2026 schedule is now available for the Los Angeles Rams. They’ll face one of the toughest slates in the upcoming season.
By the time the team’s Week 11 bye rolls around, we will know who the 2026 Rams are. They’ll need to be performing at a high level in order to find their way through the gauntlet after that point. Their closing stretch is the most brutal part of their new schedule.
Week 12 vs Green Bay Packers (Thanksgiving Eve)
Week 13 vs Kansas City Chiefs (Thursday Night Football)
Week 14 at
San Francisco 49ers
Week 15 vs Dallas Cowboys
Week 16 at Seattle Seahawks (Christmas Day)
Week 17 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Week 18 vs Seattle Seahawks
Initial thoughts
The Buccaneers are the weakest opponent in this slate of games; however, even Tampa Bay can be formidable. While they finished outside the playoffs in 2025, they’ve continued finding offensive weapons and added Reuben Bain to a defense that desperately needed more pass rushers.
Los Angeles will host the Chiefs late into the season, which means by this point Patrick Mahomes should be relatively back to normal. It would be more ideal to face the former MVP early in the season while he is still knocking the rust off from last year’s season-ending injury. Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson should both have a lot to play for against their old team.
And just when you thought it couldn’t possibly get worse, the NFL asked the Rams to close the season with two matchups versus the reigning Super Bowl champions in the final three weeks. The NFC West could easily hang in the balance, and the outcomes of these games could certainly decide whether the Rams will make the playoffs at all. Last year’s three close matchups have made future contests must-see TV, and LA earned the right to play on Christmas Day.
Don’t sleep on…
The Dallas Cowboys.
Dallas had one of the most dangerous offenses in football last year. Their defense was just so pitiful that it offset the competitive advantage. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens will be a tough matchup for McDuffie and Watson, and the Chiefs secondary struggled mightily against the Cowboys a year ago.
I’ll be picking the Cowboys to bring home the NFC East this year. Fans will overlook the difficulty of this matchup, and it will look much different late next fall than it does right now.
