Breaking down the Rams’ success based on TV broadcast windows

No entity or organization in our society can make something mundane feel like a massive deal quite like the NFL can. In related news, the full 2026 schedule will be revealed on Thursday.

We already have a few hints about what the slate will look like for the Los Angeles Rams this year. Notably, we already know they’ll open the season on Thursday, Sept. 10 against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia in a game exclusively on Netflix.

We’ll soon find out when each game will be played and on which network they’ll be shown in 2026. That got me to thinking as I contemplated what this season’s slate could look like: What time of day has been the friendliest to the Rams in the Sean McVay era? And which windows have they struggled in?

Obviously, this is the kind of hard-hitting journalism our country needs, and it’s the kind of hard and fast facts that will guarantee success or failure this coming season. Or it could just be series of coincidences that mean nothing other than satiating our desperate craving for all things football in the middle of spring. Probably the latter.

On a serious note, this might not be entirely worthless. After all, weeknight games mean different amounts of prep time than normal, higher-profile and more challenging opponents are usually on the docket in primetime, etc. If there’s an edge to be had, NFL teams will do anything they can to find it.

After digging into the data since McVay took the reins in 2017, here’s how the Rams have fared across all kickoff times in the last nine seasons (based on the Pacific time zone):