Sean McVay’s Rams have right stuff to be Super

The Los Angeles Rams can win it all.

Coming into this season, the Rams needed their two old stars on offense not to fall off the age cliff and thus complement a youthful defense that’s among the NFL’s best.

Whether it’s the Rams’ much-lauded sport science, good luck or a mix of factors, the old bodies have held as the Rams now go into the bye week.

At 37, Matthew Stafford still has enough juice.

He threw five touchdown passes Sunday in England, leading a 35-7 win over the sloppy Jacksonville Jaguars.

Soon to be 33, Davante Adams can still get open in the red zone and catch contested passes.

Adams snagged three touchdown passes, holding down the No. 1 receiver job for the injured Puka Nacua, and the Rams (5-2) beat the Jaguars (4-3).

Let’s break it down further.

Outsiders wondered just two months go if Stafford had enough left to thrive.

Not only was he entering his 17th season of a career in which he’s absorbed a high volume of hits, he sat out more team workouts this summer than he normally would, citing a stubborn back-disk ailment.

But Stafford has been nifty within the pocket and mobile enough on rollouts, absent glaring breakdowns up front.

Opponents believe Stafford’s arm strength remains good, inducing them to line up two safeties deep.

And passing the masochism test all Super Bowl quarterbacks must pass, he’s taken the hard hits that a QB must take to complete certain high-stakes passes.

After some of those hits, you could almost feel Stafford checking to see if his body’s still intact.

Also, in Week 3, he made a few uncharacteristic misfires within a close loss to the Eagles –  an outcome that could force the Rams to play at Philadelphia in the playoffs.

But Stafford gets an A-minus for L.A.’s pre-bye, seven-game segment.

Adams must be eating his vegetables, too.

There’ve been growing pains as he adapts to a new team, but he still has enough pep to make a few key plays per game.

Crucially, he still can get open against man coverage. In Week 1, against a very good Texans cornerback in Derek Stingley Jr., the receiver won a few times with quick bursts off clever deception.

The Rams won’t want to be without Nacua for long. But as it turned out, the sprained ankle he suffered in Week 6, sidelining him Sunday, was a good thing for the team.

Adams and Stafford had to rely more on each other, especially when the Rams got into the red zone. The result: three touchdown completions in which Adams beat a cornerback (mostly Jourdan Lewis, once in zone). The scores came from the 2, the 1 and the 1.

Raising their ceiling, the Rams signed Adams in March to replace Cooper Kupp.

The football logic was this: he’d combine with Nacua to form the caliber of receiving tandem that, four seasons ago, McVay and Stafford leveraged into a Super Bowl-winning push.

Through the seven games, the duo of Nacua, 24, and Adams, 32, indeed belong in the same conversation with the 2021 tandem of Kupp, 28, and late-season addition Odell Beckham Jr., 29, that created matchup torment for opponents.

The Rams (5-2) aren’t a great team.

If they were, they’d be 7-0. They let the Eagles beat them despite being up 19 points in the third quarter. They saw the 49ers overcome not having several stars, edging them in L.A.

But there are no great teams in the NFL.

McVay and GM Les Snead do have problems to solve. The kick game needs improvements from blockers and from kicker Joshua Karty. As with many Super Bowl contenders, an upgrade at cornerback may be needed.

Snead’s 2025 draft class adds to the optimism. Breakthroughs Sunday came from second-round tight end Terrance Fegurson (31-yard TD catch), third-round linebacker Josaiah Stewart (sack, tackle for loss) and seventh-round receiver Konata Munfield (5-yard TD catch). And to think, the Rams hold two first-round picks for 2026.

Circle L.A.s home matchups next month against Seattle and Tampa Bay, a pair of NFC standouts.

Don’t overlook a healthy Rams defense that’s allowing less than seven points per game.

Pencil this, McVay’s most talented club, for 11 wins and a shot at the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, which brings a first-round bye.