The St. Louis Rams are not given much of a chance to win the Super Bowl or the NFC West but that doesn’t mean they can’t cover the NFL preseason odds. The Rams open up their NFL preseason betting schedule by hosting Minnesota on August 14th.
NFL preseason odds list St. Louis as 125-1 long shots to win the Super Bowl. They are also long shots to win the NFC West division at 10-1. The Rams should be improved this season but that doesn’t mean they will win very many games. In the preseason though, they could definitely be competitive. They host the Vikings in Week 1 of the preseason and then travel to Cleveland in Week 2. They travel to New England in Week 3 and then host Baltimore in Week 4 of NFL preseason odds.
Head coach Steve Spagnuolo is changing the culture at St. Louis but it does take some time. The Rams will be turning over their starting quarterback job to first round pick Sam Bradford. Whether that happens in Week 1 or not is in debate but there is no question the job will be his this season. The Rams have A.J. Feeley and if they don’t want to throw Bradford to the wolves, they may go with Feeley early in the season. The Rams do have a very good running back in Steven Jackson but the rest of the offense is weak. They have only one decent receiver in Donnie Avery and not much of an offensive line.
The St. Louis defense was not any better than the offense last season. They were 31st in the league in points allowed. The Rams have Chris Long and James Laurinaitis but neither one is a star. The Rams have problems all across the board on defense. The secondary is just terrible which means the Rams continually give up big plays. The only strength in the back is safety O.J. Atogwe. One of the few positives for St. Louis is kicker Josh Brown who does a nice job on field goals and on kickoffs.
St. Louis is going to be improved but that is not saying much considering they won just a single game last season. In NFL preseason betting the Rams will be competitive since the preseason is more about seeing players for most teams than it is about winning games.