20 NFL bold predictions after the 2022 NFL Draft
By Randy Gurzi
5. The Los Angeles Rams miss the playoffs
The Super Bowl hangover is a real thing, and it could hit the Los Angeles Rams this season.
Los Angeles is a team loaded with veteran talent, and that’s by design. They prefer to let other teams develop players, then they give up draft picks for guys they know can have success in the NFL.
They’ve added star players such as Jalen Ramsey and Matt Stafford this way but also seem to constantly bring in key contributors such as Von Miller through trade. This year, they lost Miller but added more help on offense by signing Allen Robinson.
The problem is, they continue to add older players and don’t have near enough young draft picks to replace them. This isn’t an issue when they hit on players such as Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald when they do draft but this year, they really didn’t add anyone outside of Robinson — and while he can be good, he won’t be a huge upgrade over Odell Beckham, Jr. or Robert Woods.
This isn’t to say they will be a bad team by any means but they’ll be similar to what they were in 2021 while the Arizona Cardinals improved with the addition of Marquise Brown and Trey McBride and the San Francisco 49ers remain a threat — heck, they would have beaten L.A. in the NFC Championship if Jaquiski Tartt held onto the interception Matt Stafford tried to gift him.
With all that being said, look for the Cards and Niners to make the postseason while the Rams miss out due to a tiebreaker.