What are your top wishes for the Rams 2025 schedule?
The NFL schedule will release on Wednesday and while teams already know who they play, they don’t know when they’ll play them. At the end of the day, you play who you play, but when you play a team can be a different. For example, had the Los Angeles Rams played the Green Bay Packers before Week 5, they would have gotten Malik Willis at quarterback instead of Jordan Love. The Miami Dolphins were without Tua Tagovailoa early in the season. With Tua, the Dolphins beat the Rams in Week 10. It’s always nice to beat good teams at full strength, but in the NFL, you take wins no matter how they come. Here is my Rams schedule wish list for the 2025 season.
1. Play Detroit Within First Four Weeks
If there is a time to play the Detroit Lions, it may be early in the season. This is a team that will be losing both of its coordinators. The losses of Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn can’t be understated. It’s possible that the Lions hit the ground running, but the fact that Johnson and Glenn left for head coaching positions can’t go unnoticed. The Lions can try to implement those same ideas, but how those ideas work together can get lost with a new coordinator. With that being the case, the best time to get the Lions on the schedule could be within the first four weeks.
2. An ‘Ease Into It’ Beginning of the Season
Over the past few seasons, the Rams have had very difficult stretches to start the season. The result of that has been starting 3-6 and 2-5. Back in 2023, the Rams played the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals in two of the first three weeks. Both of those teams were in the conference championship games the year prior. Last year, the Rams started the season against the Lions. Ideally, the Rams get an easier opponent or mid-level competition in the first two weeks before their real test. This will allow them to ease into the season rather than needed to start at a full-out sprint. If the Rams are going to make the Super Bowl, they need to start fast and get an early lead in the NFC West. A start against the Seahawks and then the Falcons before playing the Lions is ideal.
3. Philadelphia and Baltimore Before mid-November
Over the past few seasons, the Rams have gotten unlucky with cold weather games. Last year, they played the New York Jets with a wind chill of around 10 degrees. In years prior, they got stuck playing the Green Bay Packers late in the season, having to face the frigid temperatures of Lambeau Field. In 2023, the Rams played the Ravens in a December matchup that featured heavy rain and cold temperatures. Ideally, the Rams are able to get both of these matchups out of the way before Week 12 and can enjoy late-season road trips to Carolina and Tennessee later.
4. A Week 1 Home Opener and Preferably vs. Seattle
The Rams haven’t had a home opener since the revealed their Super Bowl banner in 2022 against the Buffalo Bills. With next season’s opener expected to be in Melbourne, Australia, it would be nice to open the season at SoFi Stadium. Division matchup tend to dominate the early season slate. If that is the case, it would be great for the opener to also be Cooper Kupp’s return to Los Angeles. The NFL likes to begin the season with a Monday Night Football doubleheader. It would not get much better than Kupp’s return to SoFi on Monday Night Football to begin the season.
5. Titans After Week 10
While not many are expecting a lot from the Titans in Week 10, there may be a benefit to playing them later on in the season. In Weeks 1-9 last season, Jayden Daniels led the NFL in EPA per droback. Meanwhile, from Weeks 10-18, he was 17th. Caleb Williams didn’t play well last season, but would the Rams have benefitted playing the Bears later in the season last year? It may be more beneficial for the Rams to play a rookie quarterback like Cam Ward later in the year during the ‘rookie wall’ period of the season. At that point there will be plenty of tape on Ward and not a lot of surprises.
6. Minimal Schedule Disadvantages i.e. Three Game Road Trip
Being on the west coast, the Rams are going to be one of the most traveled teams in the NFL in most seasons. That is the case this year when they will travel 34,832 miles. That’s one disadvantage, but there are things that can help mitigate that. Ideally, the Rams are able to avoid too many scheduling disadvantages such as a three-game road trip and too many 10 a.m. PT starts. A 10 a.m. PT start will probably happen, but if there’s only one, that would be huge. Last year, the Rams played three. Additionally, in 2023, the Rams played four teams coming off of their bye week. They were 1-3 in those games. If the Rams can avoid too many teams coming off of their bye weeks, that’s another schedule win.
Thirty-two NFL teams will travel 625,947 miles this season. Here is the breakdown, via @billsperos: pic.twitter.com/WJ2sU5hrVG
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 13, 2025
7. Baker Return to SoFi in Primetime
In 2022, Baker Mayfield made his Rams debut in primetime against the Las Vegas Raiders. Mayfield led a comeback win capped off with a touchdown pass on the final drive to Van Jefferson. It only seems fitting that Mayfield’s return to SoFi would also be in primetime. Mayfield resurrected his career with the Rams and has since had two very good years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This would be a fun matchup with potential playoff seeding on the line.
