Rams Betting Preview 2023: Futures Picks & Predictions for Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Rams added lots of youth throughout the 2023 offseason. But there's still plenty of inexperience and questions beyond their core three veterans of Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald, and Matthew Stafford. Let's dive in with our Los Angeles Rams betting preview.

In actual human time, Super Bowl LVI when the Los Angeles Rams bested the Cincinnati Bengals occurred less than two years ago. A mere 17 months, to be exact.

In football time, or at least in Rams time, that game feels like it was played roughly 25 years ago.

There was always a flags fly forever mentally about the Rams' roster construction during that run. Von Miller embodied that approach, as he was brought in midseason and played a critical role before departing for the Buffalo Bills the following offseason. But the decimation runs deep, even for a team that gleefully, and successfully, went for it in a massive way.

Now Jalen Ramsey is gone too, taking an already feeble defense down another notch. Left tackle anchor Andrew Whitworth is long gone and enjoying retirement, resulting in the oft-injured and aging Matthew Stafford needing to operate in a pocket that has the strength of wet tissue. And a cap-crunched team with few draft picks because of its all-in approach to that championship couldn't do much to improve this past offseason.

So the watching experience might be painful, and the wins won't exactly be coming in bunches for Los Angeles in 2023. But the Rams still offer opportunities to profit from a betting perspective. Most notably, the return of Cooper Kupp.

Check out our 2023 Los Angeles Rams betting preview based on the odds from our best NFL betting sites as part of our 2023 NFL betting guide (pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale). 

Rams betting preview 2023

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Rams to win Under 6.5 games (-115 via DraftKings) ⭐⭐⭐

The Rams face a daunting gauntlet to begin the season. They open with a road trip to an always hostile environment to play the Seattle Seahawks, then a clash with the NFC title-contending San Francisco 49ers, and a visit to face the Cincinnati Bengals. A trip to tangle with the Indianapolis Colts provides a reprieve in Week 4, but then the Philadelphia Eagles visit L.A. the following week.

It's therefore not hard to envision the Rams starting off 1-4, or even winless through their first five games if the Colts present a tough road challenge. The schedule eases up beyond that, and Kupp's presence alone should at minimum lift a talent-starved team to be in the neighborhood of its 5-12 mark from 2022.

But finding the extra few victories to go above the 6.5-win bar our best sports betting sites are setting will require keeping a quarterback who suffered multiple concussions in 2022 upright. Stafford also sustained a spinal contusion as his offensive line subjected him to repeated abuse, and his elbow issues linger.

The list of glaring health issues is long for a 35-year-old quarterback who's been taking body blows for 14 seasons. And now he's about to step behind much of the same offensive line that allowed him to get sacked 59 times in 2022 (third-most), and take a sack on 10% of his dropbacks (second-most). As a result, when he was healthy Stafford produced just 6.9 yards per attempt in 2022, down dramatically from 8.1 in 2021.

Kupp will dazzle, but he can only do so much. Especially when his quarterback spends much of his time scurrying frantically.

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Rams to finish third in NFC West (+125 via DraftKings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This play is more about what's going on elsewhere in the NFC West. Or rather, what isn't going on at all in the case of the Arizona Cardinals.

The Cardinals are set to be putrid in every sense while attempting to plummet toward ownership of the No. 1 overall pick. That'll be especially the case if quarterback Kyler Murray misses a significant chunk of the season.

The Rams are talent poor in plenty of critical areas too, but just getting a healthy Kupp, Donald, and Stafford for any period gives them enough of an advantage over Arizona in the division. Kupp is one season removed from rocketing toward a campaign with 1,947 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns. He finished 17 yards shy of Calvin Johnson's single-season record. Even his production in 2022 (812 yards on 75 catches with six touchdowns) was impressive over nine games prior to a season-ending injury. He was nearly the sole reliable weapon on the Rams' offense.

Kupp can't propel the Rams past the Seattle Seahawks, and certainly not the San Francisco 49ers. But his well-established connection with Stafford should keep the Rams out of the NFC West basement.

Kupp Over 1225.5 receiving yards (-112 via FanDuel) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It's tempting to be more aggressive here and take Kupp to lead the league in receiving yards. He can be found as long as +1200 in our most regular-season receiving yards odds. Backing him in the receiving touchdowns market is equally alluring. He's among the front-runners there at +850 after scoring 24 times over his past 26 games.

But this is the safer play given the feeble state of the Rams' offense elsewhere, which very much includes the offensive line tasked with giving Stafford time to connect with Kupp deep. However, Kupp is frequently targeted on short-to-intermediate routes and asked to create tough yards after the catch, an area in which he excels.

He accumulated 422 yards after the catch over just nine contests in 2022, and a whopping 846 during his last fully healthy season in 2021.

Kupp 100-plus receiving yards in eight-plus regular-season games (+100 via DraftKings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is alarmingly easy money, and yet another way to ride Kupp to a profitable outcome.

In 2022, Kupp was on a team dealing with an offensive line that warmly invited the opposition into the pocket. And his quarterback was recovering from an elbow issue. Yet over just nine games he still produced five with 100-plus receiving yards, topping out at 128 yards during an opening-week loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Kupp is a target magnet, and he'll remain so whenever Stafford is healthy given their chemistry. He received 10-plus targets five times in 2022 after easily leading the league with 191 in 2021 (the second-place pass-catcher finished with 169).

Stafford's ability to stay healthy impacts Kupp in every sense. But the step down to his new backup Stetson Bennett likely won't be as steep as the one to John Wolford, Bryce Perkins, and Baker Mayfield. And regardless of who's under center, the game scripts will be heavily in Kupp's favor with the Rams playing from behind often.

Cam Akers Over 750.5 rushing yards (-110 via DraftKings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Yes, the Rams will struggle and experience growing pains with their group of promising though inexperienced youngsters beyond the veteran core. And yes, the game flow often won't be in Akers' favor, with the team frequently needing to mount a comeback and move away from the run.

Still, this is a basement-level number, and one Akers should cruise past if he stays even somewhat healthy. Akers led the NFL in rushing across the final six weeks of 2022 while producing 512 yards. Much of that came during a particularly sizzling stretch over the final three weeks, when he posted games with 118, 123, and 104 yards.

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