Rams Face 'No Pressure At All' With Outside Doubters
The Los Angeles Rams aren't being given much of a chance this season.
The Rams are 4.5-point underdogs against the Seattle Seahawks, have the third-worst odds to win the NFC West, have the fifth-worst odds in the NFC to win the Super Bowl and are only projected to win 6.5 games, according to SI Sportsbook.
However, All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald said he doesn't mind getting counted out.
"Ain't no pressure at all," Donald said. "Past couple of years you've been praised so high. Now, everybody's against you kind of thing. You hear it, but me personally, kind of trying to feed off it a little bit because we all need something to try to push us a little bit. It's different, but I'm for the challenge."
Los Angeles is now two years removed from winning the Super Bowl, but enters the 2023 season in a full rebuild mode with the youngest roster in the NFL by average age.
Part of the drop-off can be attributed to not having a first-round draft pick since 2016. Another part can be attributed to not keeping a lot of key players from that Super Bowl run, trading cornerback Jalen Ramsey, and failing to re-sign safety Taylor Rapp among others.
However, the make-up of a football team and its success — or lack thereof — doesn't boil down to two players. It's an organization-wide effort, and last season wasn't good enough as Los Angeles went 5-12.
The Rams embraced the rebuild in the offseason, grabbed some youth they think will develop and stick, and are trying to show signs of improvement in 2023.
Though the outside perception is that Los Angeles will struggle — and it very well might — Donald isn't worrying about what others believe. He is focused on one thing: playing the game.
"It's always going be talked in the sports world about this and that, but all you can do is play the game and see how everything plays out from there," Donald said.
The Rams' first opportunity to silence doubters comes this Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks at 1:25 p.m. PT on FOX.
