Rams' Sean McVay: 'You Got to Be Great to Be Relevant' in Los Angeles

The pressure is officially on the Los Angeles Rams.

After all, the L.A. Lakers and Dodgers already won championships in their respective sports this year. That means the Rams, more so than the 2-4 Chargers, are under the microscope as they attempt to bring another title to the city.

"Just seeing that for the city and the success, I don't know that you're any more motivated to try to kind of be on par with those teams," Rams head coach Sean McVay said, per Lindsey Thiry of ESPN. "But you certainly want to make sure that you continue to compete and produce at a high level because you got to be great to be relevant here in this city and I think that's awesome."

McVay isn't the only one who knows what the expectations are following the success of the other teams.

"I mean that's the first thing you hear is, all right, now it's your turn," quarterback Jared Goff said "And I mean—we've talked as a team since these two teams have done it, or I shouldn't say as a team, but as a group chat within the team, these two teams have done it and now it's our turn. It's something that we'd like to do."

The good news for the Rams is they are off to an excellent start at 5-2 and were thoroughly dominant in Monday's 24-10 win over fellow NFC contender the Chicago Bears.

They have Goff spreading the ball around to Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Josh Reynolds and others, while Darrell Henderson Jr. and Malcolm Brown form a solid one-two punch in the backfield. What's more, the defense has star power on multiple levels with Aaron Donald leading the pass rush and Jalen Ramsey in the secondary.

However, the bad news is they are in the NFC West.

While a 5-2 record would be good enough for a 2.5-game lead in the NFC East, every single team in Los Angeles' division is above .500. The 5-1 Seattle Seahawks are in first, while the 5-2 Arizona Cardinals and 4-3 San Francisco 49ers are right in the middle of the playoff race.

Even a brief two-game losing streak could be disastrous for the Rams' playoff chances in such a daunting division, putting even more pressure on them to perform in the current city of champions.