MELBOURNE, Australia — Shout it from the rooftops: “The Rams are Super Bowl champions.”
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Wouldn’t it be picture perfect?
Go down the list: The Myles Garrett entrance in a blockbuster trade during the offseason, Aaron Donald’s return and Matthew Stafford’s reprise of an MVP award in the end stages of what has already been a lengthy and tried NFL career coming to fruition in a hometown Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in February.
“We have a hell of an opportunity,” Garrett said Tuesday.
Not so fast.
“But that means nothing,” Garrett continued, “until we, we put it on the field.”
Rams head coach Sean McVay knows it isn’t that easy. And so do Donald, Garrett, Stafford and not to mention anyone else who dons a Rams jersey.
“Nothing is promised,” Donald said in his re-introductory press conference Aug. 30. “Nothing is guaranteed.”
“I think this is a complete team with me here or without me here, so for me to even have the opportunity to be a part of this, be with this team, I take nothing for granted,” he continued, marking a storybook continuance of his legendary, three-time Defensive Player of the Year career. “It’s a blessing to be retired from the game for two years and have the opportunity to come back and be a part of something special.”
While the Rams are the designated favorites in the league (+500 to win the Super Bowl, according to DraftKings) heading into the 2026 season – a trek of 17 regular-season games before the grueling postseason – that begins Friday morning in Melbourne, Australia (5:35 p.m. Thursday on Netflix in Los Angeles), the culture McVay has developed ahead of his decennial year coaching the Rams hasn’t allowed for complacency.
“It’s what’s great about the league – people care, there’s a lot of attention, but this is the greatest team sport there is,” McVay said on the Rams’ first day of training camp at Loyola Marymount in July. “We’ve got to come together as a team, we’ve got to stay humble. There’s a lot of stuff in the midst of the journey that we don’t control. But I think our ability to be connected, to be courageous, to handle the storms when they do come up and be inside out more than ever before is going to be really important.”
Cliché, sure. Call it coach speak – or even naivete if you’re a naysayer.
McVay hasn’t allowed the time for the dream when nothing in the NFL is given – just the now, the day-to-day ahead beginning with the San Francisco 49ers in front of an expected 100,000-plus fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Trent McDuffie, one of the Rams’ offseason acquisitions through another blockbuster trade, this time with the Kansas City Chiefs, is quickly learning the culture McVay has created entering his 10th season as Rams head coach.
“I think I knew right away when I first got here – just how special it is here,” McDuffie told the Southern California News Group. “It’s a really tight-knit group, and the guys support each other. I think that’s what’s really cool. As many of the superstars we have, there’s no egos. Nobody’s thinking that they’re better than anybody else. It’s all just, ‘How do we get better as a team?’ And that’s really what Sean McVay is all about.”
Along with cornerback Jaylen Watson, McDuffie is a part of the Rams’ secondary reconstruction efforts, both carrying two Super Bowl titles from their time with the Chiefs.
McDuffie said inside the locker room, the Rams aren’t talking about opponents, nor the 16-hour flight that they took from Los Angeles to Melbourne on Tuesday. The star cornerback said tomorrow isn’t a given, and the Rams are all about “maximizing their best.”
“It’s any given Sunday,” safety and team aptain Quentin Lake told SCNG “I’ve seen it countless times. The thing I think about is to reiterate that we’re going to get everybody’s best. Everybody has us circled on their schedule.”
Take a look at last season and the NFC Championship crumble that led to Stafford apologizing to wide receiver Davante Adams on the plane on the way home.
“I’m sorry, man,” Stafford told Adams after losing 31-27 to the Seattle Seahawks, falling short of a Super Bowl berth that would become their NFC West rivals’ to hoist in the air in two weeks.
“I wanted that for you so bad,” Stafford continued, turning behind in his seat to speak to Adams, a fellow veteran.
The moment of defeat represented a brotherhood that defensive lineman Kobie Turner turned to after the season-ender in Seattle.
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Turner isn’t focused on those negative emotions attached to the downtrodden finish to a season – all he had wished for was “one more game with these guys.”
Journeys – such as last season, from a minicamp in Hawaii to an NFC Championship berth – are something Turner doesn’t want to see end, the experience of 2025 heartbreak fueling his desire into another chance at Super Bowl glory.
“I think of that going into this new season,” Turner told SCNG. “Man, we know the capabilities that we have, we know the potential that we have. How much can we attack each and every day?”
Turner is a core member of the 2023 draft class that has shaped the identity of the 2026 Rams.
Many of them – Byron Young, Steve Avila, Warren McClendon and Puka Nacua along with Turner – are extension-eligible, but with the Rams’ tight cap space, the group is left without long-term futures in Los Angeles entering the season. They know 2026 could be their last hurrah with the Rams.
Nacua, whose career is loud on the field for the right reasons and louder off the field for others – including an offseason incident that has seen him investigated by the league for potentially breaking their personal conduct policy – is, along with Stafford, the heart of the Rams’ offense.
Simply, Nacua is a fourth-year bona fide star.
And he still tastes the bitter end of last season.
“I think there’s an understanding that the goal wasn’t completed last year,” Nacua said Monday. “There’s only one team that gets to walk away from the season happy.”
The Rams will hope that it’s their turn to end the season with a smile – and a parade through L.A.
They’ll battle for their turn to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the first time since 2022 – on home turf.
“Being here and being a part of this team, potentially doing something special,” Donald said, “that’s what it’s about. I think the Super Bowl being back at SoFi (Stadium) excites you too.”
They’ll attempt to make their before-the-season billing count by the season’s end.
“Definitely got a chip on our shoulder,” linebacker Byron Young said in late July. “We came up short last year, and this year, our goal is to take it all the way and finish the job.”
Each week, however, will be a test – one that the Rams know is coming with an extra fury behind their foe.
“Not to say that we’re the team to beat, but people know how talented we are and how good we can be at our best,” Lake told SCNG. “Not to say that the last couple years it was like, ‘Oh, the Rams this and that,’ but this year people know.”
Season opener: 49ers vs. Rams
When: 5:35 p.m. PT Thursday (10:35 a.m. Friday in Melbourne)
Where: Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia
TV/Radio: Netflix (streaming)/710 AM; 93.1 FM; 1330 AM (Spanish); Sirius 382, 226
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