One Rams squad named among 25 greatest teams since 2000
Along the way, the team endured playoff droughts and disappointing seasons before Sean McVay turned the franchise into a perennial contender. And yet, one Rams team made Yahoo Sports' Quarter Century Team.
NFL writer Frank Schwab went through the 25 best teams of the past 25 years and ranked the 2021 Rams squad No. 15 on the list. This is the team that entered the playoffs with the No. 1 seed at 14-2 but was shockingly upset in the Super Bowl by Tom Brady the year he took over the Drew Bledsoe.
The 2001 Rams were an offensive machine that had a top-10 defense and lost three games all season by a combined 13 points. Unfortunately for their legacy, one of those losses was an upset to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Still, an offense that had four Hall of Famers (it'll be five if Torry Holt gets in) still gets remembered fondly, as it should.
This was the last true season of "The Greatest Show on Turf," which led the NFL in scoring from 1999 to 2001.
Quarterback Kurt Warner led won MVP that season when he led the NFL with a 68.7% completion rate, 4,830 passing yards and 36 passing touchdowns. Running back Marshall Faulk rushed for 1,382 yards and 12 touchdowns, while catching 83 receptions for 765 yards and nine touchdowns for an NFL-best 21 scores. Receivers Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce finished with 1,363 and 1,106, respectively, for 13 combined touchdowns.
No other Rams teams made the list, which couldn't come as a surprise considering the only one ones to make the Super Bowl were the 2018 team that got crushed by the Patriots and the 2021 team that won but didn't have the best statistical season.
The hope for McVay, though, is that he and general manager Les Snead and build an even better franchise in the second half of the century.
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