The Los Angeles Rams enter the 2026 season carrying one of the more burdensome scheduling loads in the NFL. Not only do the Rams have one of the hardest schedules in the league, but they are also one of the most disadvantaged teams when it comes to their rest versus their opponents, according to Warren Sharp.
The Rams are one of seven teams that will play five or more games at a rest disadvantage this season — meaning their opponent will have had more time to prepare and recover before they play. The rest of that group includes the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Miami Dolphins, with the Los Angeles Chargers leading the league at seven such games.
The Rams also have their bye week effectively neutralized. The NFL slotted Los Angeles into the new Thanksgiving Eve game in Week 12 against the Packers, and gave both teams a Week 11 bye to accommodate the Wednesday kickoff. Since both teams enter that game off a bye, neither holds a rest edge — making the Rams’ only scheduled week off largely meaningless from a competitive standpoint.
The most fortunate part of the Rams’ schedule, though, is their Week 2 showdown with the New York Giants on Monday night at SoFi Stadium. Coming off the heels of their Thursday night Week 1 game in Australia on Sept. 10 (for the Rams, they’ll be playing Friday morning of Sept. 11), L.A. will get a solid 11 days of rest before they’ll have to suit up again. That’s a good amount of time following a grueling post-game flight from Australia back for the team to recover, plus it’s at home.
The 2026 NFL schedule is also, by several measures, the least equitable in recent memory, per Sharp. There’s a 39-day swing in net rest between the best-positioned team (the Bears at plus-15 days) and the worst (the Chargers at negative-24). That gap is the largest since 2000.
For the Rams, that framework produced a schedule that asks them to win despite consistently playing catch-up on the calendar. This is a veteran team, though, so that lack of recovery could be something easy to deal with or something that adds up for the older players.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams’ schedule has one of the biggest disadvantages in 2026 season
Reporting by Oliver G., Rams Wire / Rams Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
