Los Angeles Rams: No need to take foot off the pedal

The Los Angeles Rams are undefeated and could have plenty of time at the end of the year to coast. They shouldn’t do it though so to keep their momentum.

The Los Angeles Rams have a 3.5-game lead over the Seattle Seahawks for the NFC West division after the first eight weeks of the season. Seattle is the only team in the division with a semblance of a chance to catch the Rams. In reality, though, that’s not happening.

The biggest test for Los Angeles might be coming up on Sunday in Week 9 against a 6-1 New Orleans Saints team on the road. If the Rams can come out of the week with another win, they’ll have at least a 2.5-game lead on every team in the NFC.

A 9-0 start will also severely highten the talks of an undefeated season. If Week 15 rolls around, and the Rams are still undefeated, there’s a solid chance they won’t rest anyone.

However, if Los Angeles heads into Week 15 or 16 — or even 17 — and have locked up the No. 1 seed in the conference, it wouldn’t be surprising to see players rest. However, there’s an argument to be made against doing that.

The logic for sitting players when a playoff seed is locked is simple: Keep your roster healthy and well-rested for the playoffs. There’s a major problem with that, though. If you have a first-round bye, the players sitting are now getting multiple weeks off in succession.

Injuries happen, sure. Sitting for multiple weeks, however, is sure to knock players out of their rhythm. Then, when the team comes out flat-footed in the playoffs, it feels like the most logical reasoning is because they simply hadn’t played in a few weeks.

A simple compromise is to let the starters play at least the first half of the games you would usually rest them in. This gives them a way to keep up with the pace of a real game. It also allows the coach to evaluate the secondary talent on the team while also limiting the risk of injuries to the star players.

There’s a strong chance the Los Angeles Rams can “coast” into the playoffs. That shouldn’t be the case though. The stars need to continue playing so that they can keep up this winning rhythm that they have as they head into the playoffs looking for Super Bowl victory.