Jan. 30, 2026, 8:15 p.m. PT

It takes a truly elite team to make a Super Bowl. The combination of good coaching and quality play in all three phases of the game (and maybe a bit of luck, too), has helped push 120 teams to the Super Bowl over the past 60 years of the league’s most important game.

The Los Angeles Rams have been to five Super Bowls in the past 60 seasons and won two of them. That’s more than a lot of teams can say at this point in NFL history. And while the 2025 squad won’t get a chance to add their names to the list of participants, we can still look back on some of the best Rams teams to make it to the Super Bowl.

That’s exactly what USA Today Sports’ Nate Davis did in the lead-up to the Super Bowl LX matchup between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. He ranked the top-60 teams to make the Super Bowl, including some who didn’t even win the game.

Three Rams teams made the list, including both teams that won (in 2021 and 1999) and the 2001 team that lost.

Here’s how the rankings broke down:

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.No. 8: 1999 St. Louis Rams, won Super Bowl 34 (XXXIV)

Though many sophisticated passing attacks had shined previously, the “Greatest Show on Turf” was in some ways the vanguard of today’s pass-oriented game. QB Kurt Warner, RB Marshall Faulk and WRs Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt truly resembled a game of “Madden” come to life, St. Louis’ 13 regular-season wins coming by an average of nearly 23 points. Remarkably consistent, the Rams were held to fewer than 20 points just once (in the NFC title round by Tampa Bay) and eclipsed 30 points 13 times. And Warner’s ascension from complete unknown to league MVP and, ultimately, a Hall of Famer is a quintessential rags-to-riches tale. If there’s a blemish, it would be a labored playoff run that included a semi-controversial win in the aforementioned 11-6 defeat of the Bucs and a near escape from the Tennessee Titans in the Super Bowl.

No. 57: 2021 Los Angeles Rams, won Super Bowl 56 (LVI)

They finally won a Lombardi for LA – in LA’s SoFi Stadium. Odd journey for a team that was blown out several times during the regular season and won its final three playoff games, including a 23-20 ouster of Cincinnati on Super Sunday, by three points apiece. But a star-studded crew benefited from Matthew Stafford emerging as a championship-caliber quarterback during his first Hollywood season, DL Aaron Donald wreaking havoc against the Bengals, and Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp putting together what was probably the best season – playoff performance included – by a wide receiver in NFL history.

No. 59: 2001 St. Louis Rams, lost Super Bowl 36 (XXXVI)

The only team in franchise history to win 14 regular-season games, they were on cusp of dynasty status before getting ambushed by New England’s nascent empire.

This list makes a lot of sense. The Greatest Show on Turf team that won is ranked highly, while the one that lost was still dominant but ranked pretty low. And in the middle, you have the 2021 squad that caught fire at the end of the season to take home Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay’s first and only Super Bowl ring (so far).

The other Rams teams that didn’t make it (1979 and 2018) didn’t have nearly as impressive showings throughout the season or the playoffs. The 1979 squad went 9-7 in an abysmal year for the NFC West, slogged their way through the playoffs and were dominated in the Super Bowl by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The 2018 team had a great season in McVay’s second year at the helm, but relied too heavily on its high-octane offense until the Rams ran into the buzzsaw of a Patriots defense that held them to a season-low three points.

It would have been interesting to see where the 2025 Rams team would have landed on this list if they made it over the Seahawks. The Rams ranked first in scoring and 10th in scoring defense and looked like the best team in football for most of the year.

I guess we’ll never know.