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# The 2025 Rams Offense Surpassed Both of McVay's Super Bowl Teams
- URL: https://www.statsdigest.com/rams-2025-offense-passed-mcvay-super-bowl-teams/
- Published: 2026-08-18T12:41:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-18T12:41:53.000Z
- Description: By EPA/play, the 2025 Rams offense has now surpassed both of Sean McVay's Super Bowl teams.
- Author: Bill Seifert
- Tags: Rams, Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford, EPA, Puka Nacua, 2025 NFL

Sean McVay's built three offenses that fans will remember: the 2018 Jared Goff team that reached Super Bowl LIII, the 2021 Matthew Stafford team that won Super Bowl LVI, and the 2025 unit that just finished the regular season leading the NFL in offensive EPA/play. The third one is the best.

On a per-play basis, the 2025 Rams offense (+0.145 EPA/play, +0.221 pass EPA/play) outperformed both of McVay's previous ceilings — the 2018 group (+0.126 / +0.155) and the 2021 group (+0.061 / +0.194).

## Table of Contents

1. The rank, and the McVay-era context
2. Stafford at 37, the cleanest pocket of the McVay era
3. Nacua as a more efficient Kupp — with a red-zone specialist beside him
4. Elite at every depth simultaneously
5. What this looks like

## 1\. The rank, and the McVay-era context

Among 2025 offenses, the Rams finished first in overall EPA/play at +0.145, ahead of Buffalo (+0.138) and Green Bay (+0.122). Their pass-game EPA/play of +0.221 ranked second only to Green Bay's +0.242.

Zoom out to the McVay era and 2025 is the peak of the peak:

| Season        | Off EPA/play | Pass EPA/play | Run EPA/play |
| ------------- | ------------ | ------------- | ------------ |
| 2017          | +0.041       | +0.093        | −0.027       |
| **2018 (SB)** | **+0.126**   | **+0.155**    | **+0.087**   |
| 2019          | +0.006       | +0.093        | −0.141       |
| 2020          | −0.016       | +0.015        | −0.057       |
| **2021 (SB)** | **+0.061**   | **+0.194**    | **−0.142**   |
| 2022          | −0.088       | −0.125        | −0.035       |
| 2023          | +0.051       | +0.081        | +0.010       |
| 2024          | +0.010       | +0.064        | −0.066       |
| **2025**      | **+0.145**   | **+0.221**    | **+0.035**   |

The 2018 team leaned on a real run game (+0.087 run EPA/play, powered by Todd Gurley). The 2021 team was a pure Cooper-Kupp passing engine that ran the ball at −0.142 EPA/play — the worst mark of the McVay era outside of one 2019 outlier. The 2025 team is the first McVay offense that is above water passing *and* running (+0.035) at the same time.

## 2\. Stafford at 37, the cleanest pocket of the McVay era

Stafford's 2025 regular season was, by EPA/play, the best of his 17-year career:

| Stafford season    | Dropbacks | EPA/play   | CPOE      |
| ------------------ | --------- | ---------- | --------- |
| 2011               | 714       | +0.111     | —         |
| 2019 (10 games)    | 310       | +0.212     | —         |
| **2021 (SB year)** | **634**   | **+0.186** | **−0.12** |
| 2023               | 554       | +0.082     | —         |
| **2025**           | **620**   | **+0.227** | **+1.59** |

Across every one of his 17 pro seasons with 300+ dropbacks, no year has topped +0.227 EPA/play. In the regular season he threw for 4,707 yards, 46 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions.

The story isn't just Stafford — it's the pocket around him. Rams team-level sack rates by season:

- **2018:** 33 sacks on 604 dropbacks → **5.46%**
- **2021:** 31 sacks on 641 dropbacks → **4.84%**
- **2025:** **23 sacks on 621 dropbacks → 3.70%**

That's a McVay-era low, and it happened while the pass-attempt volume stayed comparable. A 37-year-old quarterback took roughly one sack every 27 dropbacks. In his Super Bowl-winning season he took one every 21.

## 3\. Nacua as a more efficient Kupp — with a red-zone specialist beside him

The 2021 offense was Cooper Kupp and everyone else. Kupp saw **192 targets** at +0.588 EPA/target for 1,947 yards and 17 receiving touchdowns. Nobody else on that team cleared 100 targets.

In 2025, McVay pulled off something different: two elite pass-catchers running on complementary role-sheets.

| Player       | Season   | Tgts    | Rec     | Yds       | TD     | EPA/tgt    | Avg air yds |
| ------------ | -------- | ------- | ------- | --------- | ------ | ---------- | ----------- |
| C. Kupp      | 2021     | 192     | 145     | 1,947     | 17     | +0.588     | 8.6         |
| **P. Nacua** | **2025** | **166** | **129** | **1,715** | **11** | **+0.697** | **9.4**     |
| **D. Adams** | **2025** | **114** | **60**  | **789**   | **14** | **+0.237** | **12.7**    |

Nacua's 2025 was, on a rate basis, more efficient than Kupp's triple-crown season — +0.697 EPA per target vs. Kupp's +0.588 — on a slightly deeper average target (9.4 vs. 8.6 air yards).

Then there's Adams, whose surface line looks pedestrian next to his career norms (60 catches, 789 yards) until you notice the touchdown total: **14 receiving TDs on 114 targets**, at 12.7 average air yards. That's a designated vertical-and-red-zone role, one Kupp had to absorb himself in 2021.

For contrast, the 2018 Super Bowl offense split its target load three ways among Robert Woods (130 targets, +0.472 EPA/tgt), Brandin Cooks (117, +0.485) and a young Kupp (55 in an injury-shortened year, +0.649). Efficient, but nothing on the volume side of what Nacua did in 2025.

## 4\. Elite at every depth simultaneously

Here's the piece that separates the 2025 offense from every prior McVay team. Bucket every regular-season pass attempt by air yards — short (<10), mid (10–14), deep (15+) — and look at both volume and efficiency:

| Season   | Depth     | Att     | EPA/play   | TDs    |
| -------- | --------- | ------- | ---------- | ------ |
| 2018     | Short     | 354     | +0.208     | 21     |
| 2018     | Mid       | 85      | +0.475     | 2      |
| 2018     | Deep      | 129     | +0.544     | 9      |
| 2021     | Short     | 404     | +0.047     | 28     |
| 2021     | Mid       | 71      | +0.877     | 7      |
| 2021     | Deep      | 132     | +0.662     | 10     |
| **2025** | **Short** | **379** | **+0.105** | **33** |
| **2025** | **Mid**   | **60**  | **+0.525** | **2**  |
| **2025** | **Deep**  | **159** | **+0.710** | **13** |

Two things jump out. First, the 2025 deep-ball workload: **159 attempts at 15+ air yards, at +0.710 EPA per play** — more volume than either Super Bowl team, at a higher per-play return than 2021 (+0.662) and 2018 (+0.544). Second, the short game finally turned a real profit again. The 2021 team's short passing sat at +0.047 EPA/play; the 2025 version came in at +0.105 and generated 33 touchdowns (vs. 28 in 2021, 21 in 2018).

Put simply: the 2018 team was a good deep team with a real run game. The 2021 team was a great mid-and-deep team dragged down by a broken run game and a flat short game. The 2025 team is above the 2021 marks on deep balls, above the 2021 marks on the short game, and has a functioning run attack (+0.035 EPA/play) that neither Super Bowl offense could claim.

## 5\. What this looks like

The temptation with any team playing this well is to reach for the SB-year comp. But the 2025 Rams aren't a hotter version of 2018 or 2021 — they're built differently. The 2018 unit needed Gurley. The 2021 unit needed Kupp to see 192 targets. This one had a 37-year-old quarterback playing the best football of his career behind an offensive line that gave up sacks on 3.7% of dropbacks, throwing to a WR1 posting Kupp's rate stats and a WR2 catching touchdowns at a high rate.

Every McVay offense has had a load-bearing wall — Gurley, Kupp, a survivable rushing attack. The 2025 team didn't have one. That's what elite-at-every-depth means, and it's why the numbers just cleared a bar McVay's Super Bowl teams set.