Rams Clips
The Bears have handed in their final injury report for Sunday’s game against the Rams.
Wide receiver Rome Odunze is listed as questionable to play due to the foot issue that kept him out for the last month of the regular season. Odunze played last weekend and was up to full practice participation on Friday, which should bode well for his chance of playing this weekend.
Odunze’s fellow wideout DJ Moore was limited in practice with a knee injury on Wednesday and Thursday, but has no injury designation.
Linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin (back) joins Odunze in the questionable category while cornerback Nick McCloud (groin) has been ruled out.
The Rams will get guard Kevin Dotson back on Sunday.
Rams coach Sean McVay said today that Dotson will start against the Bears.
Dotson has missed the last three games after suffering an ankle injury in Week 16 against the Seahawks.
Dotson suffered the injury when teammate Coleman Shelton accidentally rolled into his leg, and then to add insult to injury, Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall stomped on Dotson’s leg while Dotson was on the ground. Hall was suspended for a game by the NFL for that.
Dotson had started all 15 games until that injury, and having him back in the lineup will be big for the Rams on Sunday.
The Rams are healthy heading to Chicago, although backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will be listed as questionable with a back injury.
Go West, young man.
And buy everything.
Via the New York Times, Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s recent purchase of 937,000 acres in New Mexico has made him the largest private landowner in the United State, with more than 2.7 million acres in the American West and Canada.
How much is that? The entire state of Delaware covers 1.2 million acres. So Kroenke owns more than two Delawares.
He also owns 60 million square feet of commercial space.
Currently, Kroenke is demolishing a mall (the Promenade in Woodland Hills) that will become the site of a new Rams facility. That account for only 52 acres of his entire holdings.
And he owns the Rams, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Rapids of the MLS, the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League, and Arsenal FC of the Premier League.
He’s married to Ann Walton Kroenke, granddaughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Her cousin, Rob Walton, is part of the Denver Broncos ownership group. Their teams are two wins away each from squaring off in 23 days in the Super Bowl.
The Los Angeles Rams are favored by 3.5 points at Chicago in the divisional round of the playoffs. That’s extraordinarily rare.
Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, there have been 224 divisional round games. Only twice has a road team been favored by more than the 3.5 points that the Rams are favored by.
The biggest road favorites in the divisional round were the 1979 Eagles, who were favored by 4.5 points at Tampa Bay. (The home Buccaneers pulled off the upset, 24-17). The second-biggest road favorites in the divisional round were the 1971 Baltimore Colts, who were favored by 4 points at Cleveland. (The Colts covered the spread, beating the Browns 20-3.)
And then there’s this year’s Rams, who are tied for the third-biggest spread for a road favorite with that 3.5-point line at Chicago on Sunday. A few other teams have been favored by exactly 3.5 points on the road in the divisional round, but only two have been favored by four or more.
Overall only 17 of 224 road teams have been favored in the divisional round. With the better teams getting home-field advantage, and often coming off a first-round playoff bye, a road favorite in the divisional round is a rarity in the NFL.
Bears coach Ben Johnson, who likes to fire up his team by talking about “noise” from their opponents, may use this information to give his players a “Nobody believes in us” speech, as his team is a rare home underdog.
The Rams and Bears will be playing in winter weather on Sunday night at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The current forecast for kickoff is a temperature of 19 degrees, wind gusts of 20 miles per hour and a 45 percent chance of snow.
Both teams’ coaches have said this week that they’re preparing for the winter weather.
Bears coach Ben Johnson says he likes the cold and that it could be a rude awakening for the opponents from Los Angeles, although Johnson acknowledged that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has plenty of experience in the cold.
“I do know this will be the coldest game that they’ve played this year,” Johnson said. “That’s something I recognized when we found out who the opponent was. But I think Matthew Stafford has played well in cold games in his past, I don’t know how much of an advantage that gives you over their passing game necessarily. There’s a lot of elements that go into a game like this.”
Rams coach Sean McVay noted that the Rams played in bad weather in two games last season, against the Eagles and Jets, and the weather didn’t hurt them.
“You know in the cold how the ball feels, but last year was a great example, we had two really cold games,” McVay said. “Matthew’s played in these conditions. So it doesn’t change. There’s a couple things you have to be mindful of, but you start talking about wind, rain, how that affects your footing, we always kind of adjust and adapt. They’ve got to be able to play in those elements — they have a little more experience, but we’re not going to allow that to be an excuse. I think you have to have a feel, but I think the way that our guys play, I think it suits us well in any sorts of conditions.”
The Rams have three assistant coaches in the mix for head coaching jobs this cycle and all of them are interviewing with teams on Friday.
That group includes pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase. Albert Breer of SI.com reports that he will be meeting with the Browns, Steelers, Ravens and Raiders.
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula is also interviewing with the Steelers and Ravens while offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur is on the Raiders’ list.
Scheelhaase joined the Rams as an offensive assistant in 2024 and took on his current role this year. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Iowa State before making the move to the NFL.
Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur has a couple of head coaching interviews lined up for Friday.
Albert Breer of SI.com reports that the Cardinals and Raiders will both meet with LaFleur. The interviews will take place virtually.
LaFleur is in his third season as the coordinator for the Rams. He ran the Jets offense for two seasons before joining Sean McVay’s staff and was on Kyle Shanahan’s staff with the 49ers for four seasons before going to the Jets with Robert Saleh.
A win over the Bears on Sunday would delay any second round interviews until the Rams are done playing or until the week between the conference title game or the Super Bowl, but it would also likely help LaFleur’s bid to move up the coaching ladder.
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula will take a break from preparing for the Bears to interview for head coaching jobs on Friday.
Albert Breer of SI.com reports that Shula will have virtual interviews with the Steelers, Ravens and Dolphins. Shula has gotten requests from other teams as well, but those are the only interviews currently on the docket.
Shula was installed as the early betting favorite for the job in Pittsburgh, but Steelers owner Art Rooney II said this week that he expects the process to find Mike Tomlin’s successor to take weeks so there’s a lot left to play out.
In-person interviews with currently employed coaches who are no longer in the playoffs can start after the divisional round, but Shula and other Rams assistants will have to wait longer if they are able to come up with a win in Chicago on Sunday.
Rams pass rusher Jared Verse says that even if he doesn’t sack Caleb Williams on Sunday, he needs to get enough contact with him to disrupt his throws.
Verse said that simply grabbing Williams’ jersey or diving for his legs isn’t going to be enough, because Williams is too good at throwing under pressure. What Verse and his teammates want to do is make contact with Williams’ arm to prevent him from getting an accurate throw off.
“You’ve got to keep rushing, you’ve got to keep running, and once you get your hands around him, you can’t fully grab him, aim for his arm,” Verse said. “You have to aim for his arm, try to mess his throw up a little bit. It can’t just be like getting him off the spot. Running quarterbacks, even if they’re off the spot, they’re still liable to make any type of play.”
Verse said the Rams won’t be afraid of Williams using his mobility to step up and run past the pass rush.
“We don’t rush scared. We rush very alive,” Verse said. “I have the liberty to make a good play.”
And Verse wants to make sure Williams is not free to make good plays, with his arm or with his legs.
Samson Nacua ended up having a compelling defense to accusations that he stole a car belonging to Lakers forward Adou Thiero last month.
Samson Nacua thought it was his brother’s car.
His brother, Puka Nacua, is a first-team All-Pro receiver with the Rams.
"[Samson Nacua] believed the vehicle was his brother’s since his brother has the exact same model vehicle (only a year or two older) and the same color,” the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department told TMZ.com on Thursday. “The case was submitted for reject. The victim does not wish to prosecute as well.”
Samson Nacua and Trey Rose were arrested in December after Thiero’s car was tracked to a hotel parking lot in L.A. Nacua and Rose had valeted the car and were inside the hotel.
Samson Nacua recently was drafted by the Birmingham Stallions of the UFL in the spring league’s latest effort to allocate players for the upcoming season. Undrafted in 2022, Samson Nacua has spent time on the preseason rosters of the Colts and Saints. He played for the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL in 2023, and the Michigan Panthers of the UFL for the past two years. In 2025, he was suspended for one game after an altercation with a fan.
