The Los Angeles Rams have had an incredibly productive offseason, trading for future Hall of Fame defensive end Myles Garrett and star cornerback Trent McDuffie, while adding cornerback Jaylen Watson in free agency to help remake their defense.
And that was before it was finally announced on Sunday that Aaron Donald would be coming out of retirement to join this year’s team.
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Oddsmakers had already established the Rams as the clear Super Bowl favorites, with Los Angeles at +500 odds and no other team in single digits. The Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens have the next-best odds to win the Super Bowl at DraftKings at 10-1, followed by the defending champion Seattle Seahawks at 12-1.
But with such short odds to win the Super Bowl in the preseason, should we just give the Lombardi Trophy now to the Rams?
History says … not exactly.
In the past 30 seasons, there have been 20 instances — including historic teams like the 2007 New England Patriots and “The Greatest Show on Turf” St. Lous Rams teams from 2000-2002 — of the preseason Super Bowl favorite having odds of +500 or better entering a season, per Sports Odds History.
None of them have won the Super Bowl.
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They have gone 0-for-20, including most recently the Kansas City Chiefs in 2024 (+500 preseason Super Bowl odds), 2021 (+450) and 2020 (+450).
Oddsmakers unanimously have the Rams as their top power-rated team heading into this season, but don’t have Los Angeles rated as highly as many of the other teams on that list. One oddsmaker had the Seahawks at No. 2 as only a half-point behind the Rams.
Several oddsmakers Yahoo Sports spoke with over the past few weeks have also mentioned that a popular cross-sport futures parlay has been bettors tying together the Rams to win the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series.
With a win total of 11.5 (the franchise’s highest since at least 1989) and the best playoff odds of any NFL team (-500), it would be shocking to see a subpar season from the Rams. It’s a loaded roster with stars at nearly every position group and a quarterback in Matthew Stafford coming off an MVP season.
But let’s not hand them the Lombardi just yet.
