2022 Los Angeles Rams Odds, Schedule, & Fantasy Football Team Preview
Fresh off a Super Bowl victory the Rams will once again look to combine their potent fast-paced offense with a stout defense headlined with big names to defend their title. Was last season just a fluke or has the groundwork been laid for another championship run?
Using RotoGrinders NFL 2022 projections, we review all 32 NFL Teams this summer and uncover all the best bets and league-winning picks we can find. Among the questions we will look at to answer in this article:
- Los Angeles Rams Betting Odds: Is there still value on the Rams winning the NFC West despite being priced as favorites?
- Team Overview: Are Rams games stackable in DFS despite Los Angeles’ 5th-ranked defense?
- Fantasy Football Drafts: Is Cooper Kupp still WR1? Where does Allen Robinson fit in? What do we do with the RBs?
Be sure to check out all the great sports betting, fantasy football, and DFS content available on RotoGrinders leading up to kickoff. We’ll be covering fantasy football for BestBall with Spike Week, rankings and projections, DFS preseason with RotoGrinders Premium, and RotoGrinders Premium and Sports betting at RG and ScoresAndOdds.
2022 Los Angeles Rams Schedule, Lines, and Best Bets
Projected Odds, derived & modified from data originally published by Sean Koerner here.
Win Total and Total Games Favored:
10.5 (-110) / 13 Games Favored ( 4 Big Favorites / 0 Big Dogs)
I typically shy away from locking money up on season-long bets with shorter odds but do think there is some value on Los Angeles to win the NFC West at +125. San Francisco (+150) is the Rams’ stiffest competition but they have some big-time question marks on offense with Trey Lance taking over QB duties. It is quite possible that Lance is an upgrade over Jimmy G – however you would like to measure that – but it’s also quite possible Lance simply isn’t NFL ready yet. Outside of San Francisco, there isn’t much to worry about here. The Seattle Seahawks are one of, if not the worst, teams in the NFL, and the Cardinals are unlikely to be able to overcome a truly bad defense. The Rams’ tough out-of-division schedule combined with their second game against Seattle taking place in a potentially meaningless Week 18 are a couple of reasons I prefer taking shots on them to win the division instead of betting the over on their win total.
Los Angeles Rams Props
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Favorite Prop: Cam Akers OVER 8 rushing touchdowns. Akers missed all but Week 18 of the regular season last year due to an achilles injury but got RB1 treatment throughout the postseason. The Rams are capable and more than willing to throw the ball in the Red Zone but should be there an absolute ton this season which should give Akers plenty of chances to beat this number.
Los Angeles Rams Fantasy Football Projections
Team Rankings and Ratings
Offense Ranks:Rank 6/ Average Rush / Very Strong Pass/ Rank 4 Points For)
Defense Ranks:Rank 5/ Elite Rush / Elite pass / Rank 12 Points Allowed)
Opponent Strength – Rushing:5 difficult vs. rush. 4 soft vs. rush.
Opponent Strength – Passing:7 difficult vs. pass. 7 soft vs. pass.
There isn’t anything surprising here – the Rams once again project to once again have one of the top offenses and defenses in the league. While their defense is strong, it’s important to remember that Los Angeles also plays at one of the fastest situation neutral paces in the league – fourth last season – which creates volume opportunities for opposing offenses. Volume oftentimes trumps efficiency in fantasy football which means we should still be looking to stack Rams’ games in DFS despite their strong defense.
Los Angeles Rams Top Fantasy Football Plays & Picks
Noteworthy Depth Chart
QB: Matthew Stafford – Underdog Rank: 100 (ADP 93 / -7% ADP Gap)
RB: Cam Akers – Underdog Rank: 48 (ADP 42 / -12.5% ADP Gap)
RB: Darrell Henderson – Underdog Rank: 153 (ADP 139 / -9.15% ADP Gap)
WR: Cooper Kupp – Underdog Rank: 3 (ADP 3 / 0% ADP Gap)
WR: Allen Robinson – Underdog Rank: 40 (ADP 48 / 20% ADP Gap)
WR: Van Jefferson – Underdog Rank: 127 (ADP 144 – 13.39% ADP Gap)
TE: Tyler Higbee – Underdog Rank: 132 (ADP 163 / 23.48% ADP Gap)
*Note: Premium Subscribers can find updated rankings for Underdog Fantasy in the content schedule here.
New Additions of Note: Allen Robinson
Departures of Note: Robert Woods, Odell Beckham, Sony Michel
Cooper Kupp had an unreal fantasy season in 2021 posting league highs in receptions (145), yards (1,947), and receiving touchdowns (16). After such a monster year it’s no surprise that Kupp is being drafted as the first WR off the board with an ADP sitting around 3 behind Jonathan Taylor and Christian McCaffrey. While it’s impossible to project him to match the historical production he put up last season there is very little doubt that he’s the “safest” WR in fantasy and has earned every bit of his ADP.
To me, Allen Robinson is the much more intriguing player to talk about. Robinson’s current Underdog ADP sits in the 42 range but I am significantly more bullish on Robinson than that. Robinson is coming off the worst year of his career where he had everything working against him – injuries, COVID, a donkey offensive coordinator, and a rookie QB throwing him the ball. Amazingly, you could argue Justin Fields is the best QB he’s played with at this point in his career. Here are the other QB’s that Robinson has caught passes from: Blake Bortles, Chad Henne, Mitch Trubisky, Chase Daniel, Nick Foles, and Andy Dalton. Simply put, Robinson has been put in terrible situations his entire career and has still been able to top 850 receiving yards in four of his seven healthy seasons. There’s no arguing his target competition is stiffer with Cooper Kupp demanding his 11 targets per game but outside of Kupp a significant portion of the Rams’ passing game is up in the air. On top of the potential opportunity, Robinson has received a ton of positive training camp buzz.
Cam Akers is another key Rams offensive player that you can grab in the fourth round with his Underdog ADP sitting in the mid-40’s. I mentioned above that Akers missed the entire 2021 regular season outside of Week 18 where he saw five carries just to get his feet wet before the playoffs. Once the playoffs started Akers surprisingly jumped into the RB1 role and handled 18, 27, 14, and 16 touches during their Super Bowl run. Akers was unsurprisingly inefficient with his touches – a combination of rust and tough matchups – but McVay’s deployment would suggest Akers is in line for an RB1-type workload in 2022.
Image Credit: Imagn