A preseason favorite, in football terms the team most analysts expect to win the championship before a single game is played, rarely keeps that label undisturbed. The Los Angeles Rams held it going into 2026. They lost the opener to the San Francisco 49ers, a game played in Australia, and the questions around them have not settled since.
What the Rams are actually dealing with
Whether the Rams can rally from that opening loss is far from settled. The team carries several unresolved issues into the regular season. A couple of players face the possibility of NFL suspensions. The play level of Aaron Donald is uncertain. The health of Myles Garrett later in the year is an open question. And the team's speed, particularly on a defense with many new players, has not been tested across enough games to judge clearly.
The first loss narrows the margin. None of these concerns ends a season on its own, but they add up.
Scott Hanson, host of "NFL RedZone," said the reason most observers hesitate before picking the Rams is that the odds-on Super Bowl favorite traditionally does not win the Super Bowl. He said injuries happen, or another team simply outperforms the pick. He described the NFC West as a gauntlet and noted the reigning Super Bowl champions are also positioned in that division.
How the conferences are projected to shake out
The full forecast places seven teams from each conference into the postseason, the elimination bracket that follows the regular season.
The AFC group is projected as the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Kansas City Chiefs. The NFC group is projected as the Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams, and San Francisco 49ers.
The AFC Championship is projected as the Bengals against the Bills. The NFC Championship is projected as the Cowboys against the Rams. Both projections lead to Super Bowl LXI, the 61st playing of the NFL title game, with the Bengals over the Cowboys.
The regular season's opening Sunday featured eight games at 1 p.m. Eastern, four in the late afternoon, and one on Sunday night. The Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs closed the opening weekend on Monday Night Football.