Coming into this season, it was hard to fathom a scenario where the Rams would miss the playoffs. They had a tough schedule and suffered some losses during the offseason, but the Rams were still viewed as one of the better teams in the NFL.
FiveThirtyEight, which uses a prediction model to forecast each team’s playoff chances and Super Bowl odds, gave the Rams a 65% chance to make the postseason this year. That ranked fifth among all NFL teams, behind only the Bills, Bucs, Packers and Chiefs.
Since starting 3-4, however, the Rams’ playoff chances have sunk to just 23%. That’s tied with the Browns and lower than the Jets, Patriots, Buccaneers and Falcons. With a 23% chance at the playoffs, that puts the Rams 19th in the NFL.
Their Super Bowl chances have dropped from 7% to 0.5%, too, according to FiveThirtyEight.
There’s no denying the fact that the NFC West is wide open and the Rams still have a decent chance to come out on top. They’re 3-4 and sitting in third place, but the division-leading Seahawks are just 5-3 and the Rams still get to play them twice.
The 49ers are the bigger problem at 4-4, having already beaten Los Angeles twice this season. If the Rams can beat the Buccaneers this week, they’ll tie the 49ers, who are on a bye, and potentially get within a half-game of the Seahawks if the Cardinals can beat them on Sunday.
The season is far from over, even if their playoff odds look bleak based on FiveThirtyEight’s model.
