Football odds are likely to have the St. Louis Rams as underdogs in every game again in 2009. The Rams were 2-14 last season and things don’t look that much better heading into this season. Football odds had the Rams going 6-10 against the NFL betting pointspread in 2008. Not much went right for the Rams and they didn’t do a whole lot in the off-season to make fans optimistic.
They have a new head coach in Steve Spagnuolo and perhaps he can inspire them. They lost wide receiver Torry Hold and offensive tackle Orlando Pace in the off-season so that doesn’t help. They took Jason Smith with their first round pick in the NFL Draft and they hope he can replace Pace. They took linebacker James Laurinaitis with their second pick as NFL betting information shows.
Football odds numbers show that the Rams were simply horrible on both sides of the ball last year. They were 30th in points scored and 31st in points allowed as football odds numbers show. The offense has no excuse for being that bad considering they have Steven Jackson at running back and Marc Bulger at quarterback. The problem for these two players is that they don’t have much help. Donnie Avery looks good at one receiver spot but there is not much else.
The defense might be better under Spagnuolo who was the defensive coordinator for the Giants. He brought in strong safety James Butler and with Laurinaitis on the team they should help Chris Long on defense.
There is only one team in the NFL with longer football odds to win Super Bowl XLIV than the St. Louis Rams and that is the Detroit Lions. The Rams are 75-1 while the Lions are 100-1 in football odds at the sports book. There may actually be more hope in Detroit though than in St. Louis since the Lions have renewed enthusiasm now that they got rid of Matt Millen in the front office and drafted Matthew Stafford at quarterback. The same can’t be said of the Rams though even though they probably have more overall talent than Detroit. Bulger and Jackson are solid NFL pros that can impact the football odds at the sports book when healthy. The schedule for the Rams actually does them some favors in 2009 as they get to play the Lions and playing in the NFC West doesn’t hurt either.