The Los Angeles Rams are heading into the 2026 NFL season looking absolutely loaded, with Super Bowl odds higher than any other team in the league, especially after they snatched Myles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns. They’re a superteam, plain and simple. But hold up, because history just threw a serious wrench into that “sure thing” talk.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell highlighted something wild: history doesn’t actually bode well for teams like this. Since 1990, only two of the top 15 teams with the highest Super Bowl odds compared to their competition have actually won the Super Bowl. Yeah, you read that right. Two!
The Crushing Weight of Expectations
Barnwell dug deep, analyzing the top 15 teams since 1990 that had the biggest “gap to the rest of the NFL” in their Super Bowl odds. The Rams’ implied odds are 12.5%, with a 5.1% gap to the competition. Sounds pretty dominant, right? Well, it gets worse.
There are seven teams in Barnwell’s analysis with a smaller gap than the 2026 Rams, including the 2001 Rams at 3.6%. But the real kick in the gut for any Rams fan comes from the eight teams with even higher projected odds. Barnwell straight up says, “Every single team that was projected to be more dominant versus the rest of the competition failed to win the Super Bowl.”
History’s Superteam Curse
Eight teams since 1990 have had a greater gap in Super Bowl odds compared to the next closest team, and every single one of them failed to win it all. We’re talking about teams like the 2007 New England Patriots, the 2002 Rams, and the 2017 Patriots, who had a mind-blowing 11.5% gap in odds! None of them hoisted that Lombardi trophy.
So, these preseason Super Bowl odds aren’t exactly a golden ticket for the Rams. While they’re definitely in a fantastic spot on paper, the cold, hard facts show that only two teams in Barnwell’s top-15 ranking, the 1994 San Francisco 49ers and the 2018 Patriots, went on to win the Super Bowl. That’s a brutal omen for any “superteam.”
Sure, the Rams are still favorites, and they should be. But there’s a legitimate reason for their fans to be a little worried. A lot can go wrong, and when it comes to superteams like this one, history is absolutely screaming a warning. Can they defy the odds and break this historical curse this season? We’ll just have to wait and see if they can make history their own way.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by The Sporting News.
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