The Raiders can spend all offseason trying to reshape their identity, but when Week 7 rolls around against the Rams, they may still be staring up at a team that looks a whole lot closer to the NFL’s top shelf.
That’s the takeaway from John Sbisa of Ramblin’ Fan, FanSided’s Rams site, who doesn’t exactly see Las Vegas as a threat to one of the league’s preseason darlings. The Raiders will host Los Angeles in the 2026 season, and Sbisa’s read is simple: the Rams are loaded, and the Raiders are not there yet.
That doesn’t mean the Rams are without questions. Sbisa pointed to injuries as the biggest thing that could knock them off course if they fail to win the Super Bowl this year.
Matthew Stafford’s back is a major concern, and the Rams also can’t afford to lose either Davante Adams or Puka Nacua for long, especially if the other is already banged up. He also raised the possibility that defenses could eventually catch up to Sean MVay’s 13-personnel looks.
Still, the overall picture in Los Angeles is one of a roster that keeps getting stronger. Sbisa called the Myles Garrett trade a scale-tipping move on paper, especially after the Rams addressed their secondary with other major additions.
He noted that the pass rush was already effective last season, and now it has Garrett. Even so, he pushed back on the idea that the hype has gotten out of hand, saying the Rams are not going 17-0 and reminding that preseason praise does not win championships.
The Ty Simpson pick was another major topic. Sbisa said many Rams fans have come around on it, even if he was initially against the move himself.
With Stafford now 38, and with the Rams unlikely to draft near the top 10 while he’s active, he viewed the 13th overall pick they used on Simpson - originally belonging to the Falcons - as their best chance to land a future franchise quarterback. Simpson, he added, should get at least a year or two to sit behind Stafford before taking over.
There was also chatter this offseason around Davante Adams, including a possible Rams-Eagles deal that would have involved AJ Brown before Brown ended up with the Patriots. Sbisa said the speculation was real, but Rams fans are relieved the team kept Adams. He also said Adams built a strong connection with Stafford last season, even with Stafford missing training camp because of back issues, and that the Rams trust Adams to handle himself professionally.
As for Klint Kubiak, the Raiders’ offensive coordinator has earned respect in Los Angeles for what he did with the Seahawks. But Sbisa made clear that the Raiders won’t be bringing the same offensive firepower to this matchup, and he believes the Rams’ defense is much improved. If Las Vegas were to pull off the upset, he said, it would send the narrative machine into overdrive.
One move Sbisa singled out that has flown under the radar was the Rams’ extension of safety Kam Curl just days before he would have reached free agency. He said that move, along with Quentin Lake’s extension in late January, helps stabilize the middle of the defense. While he expects Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson to have a bigger impact on the back end, he said losing Curl would have undercut the Rams’ effort to reshape the secondary.
And when it came to the Raiders’ chances in this matchup, Sbisa didn’t sugarcoat it. From his view, Las Vegas has not yet built itself into a team capable of beating Los Angeles at that level.
He did leave the door open just a crack, though, pointing out that the Raiders’ offseason spending suggests they expect to be better than people think. He also reminded that the Rams have stumbled before, including their late-season loss to Atlanta, with Kirk Cousins at quarterback.
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