The Los Angeles Rams were supposed to be cruising by now, and that’s exactly why their uneven start has already aged some of the preseason noise badly. A lot of the chatter painted them as a team that would steamroll the league, pile up points, and make the rest of the NFL look helpless.
Instead, the Rams are sitting behind the Seattle Seahawks in the record column, and they haven’t looked nearly as overwhelming as the loudest preseason voices insisted they would. That gap matters, especially when the conversation had already drifted into absurd territory before the season even began.
It’s not hard to understand why some people got carried away. Sean McVay, Myles Garrett, Aaron Donald, and Trent McDuffie make for a terrifying collection of names on paper. But paper doesn’t win games, and the idea that the Rams were destined to bulldoze everyone was always a stretch.
Health has already played a part in slowing things down, and that’s true for Seattle too. The Seahawks’ banged-up secondary may have cost them a perfect 3-0 start, which is its own reminder that the NFL doesn’t hand out easy wins just because a roster looks good on a screen.
Myles Garrett has missed one-third of the season with a knee injury, and Aaron Donald has flashed but hasn’t been as consistent after a long layoff. That’s the sort of reality check that gets lost when people focus only on the biggest names and the loudest projections.
And that’s really the point here: the flashiest team on the board is not automatically the team that finishes on top. More often than not, it isn’t.
The Seahawks may not be the league’s favorite headline, and they certainly don’t draw the kind of celebrity attention that comes with playing in the hottest market. But they’re still winning football games, and that counts for a lot more than the hype machine wants to admit.
There’s always a market for over-the-top takes, and the modern sports conversation runs on them. Still, the old truth keeps showing up every season: you don’t get crowned before the games are played.
The Rams might still be dangerous. It’s too early to write them off. But it was ridiculous to hand them the throne before kickoff, and the early standings are making that look even more obvious.
In Other News...
Seahawks Fans Suddenly Have A Real Reason To Worry About The Future
New Seahawks owner Vinod Khosla says he has no immediate plans to alter the team or how it operates, which should offer some short-term comfort to a fan base that values stability as much as success. Even so, his latest comments left one important issue hanging in the air: the long-term question of where the franchise will call home once the current lease at Lumen Field runs out in 2032.
Khosla also made clear he is still learning the ropes of running an NFL team, and he suggested his comments about the teams future location could be part of the broader chess match that comes with stadium talks. For Seattle fans, that may not mean an actual move is imminent, but it does mean the next chapter of ownership comes with a topic nobody can quite ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Have One Defensive Strength To Trust As Changes Loom
The Seahawks left Week 3 with more questions than answers on a defense that gave up 27 points to Washington and faded in the moments that mattered most. For all the issues in the back end and along the edge, the interior defensive line was one part of the unit that held up, with Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed and Byron Murphy providing at least a measure of stability in the middle.
That matters now because Mike Macdonald has already signaled changes are coming before Week 4, and Seattle needs to sort out which pieces can be trusted as the staff adjusts. The front inside gives the Seahawks a starting point, but the bigger challenge is turning one dependable strength into something the rest of the defense can build around. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Fans Are Headed For A Familiar Sam Darnold Fight
Sam Darnold is still holding the Seahawks starting quarterback job, even as the conversation around him has picked up again after his Week 3 interception was returned for a touchdown. The criticism has followed a familiar pattern for Seattle fans, because the discourse around the quarterback spot has a way of sharpening fast whenever there is a mistake, even when the overall performance tells a different story.
In that game, Darnold completed 31 of 45 passes for 379 yards and four touchdowns with a 105.7 quarterback rating, a line that shows why the Seahawks have kept him in place. Drew Lock, who started the first two games, remains the backup and has not voiced any dissatisfaction with his role, leaving the depth chart intact for now even as the outside noise continues. [Read more 🡒]