Rather than taking an 11-5 record and a playoff berth in 2017 and resting on their laurels, the Los Angeles Rams have had a whirlwind of an offseason. Not only did the team sign Ndamukong Suh and add Marcus Peters, Aqib Talib and Sam Shields to their secondary, they also traded for Brandin Cooks (and gave him an extension last week with $50.5 million guaranteed) and gave Todd Gurley a new extension on Tuesday. All of this while the team and star defensive lineman Aaron Donald try to figure out what they're going to do moving forward.

All of that in conjunction with a breakout season from quarterback Jared Goff in 2017 and a terrific first year from head coach Sean McVay has the Rams are in talks to win the Super Bowl next season. However, being the offseason champions is meaningless in today's NFL -- ask the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles -- and Goff and the Rams are trying to shut out the outside noise.

"I think you see every year there are teams that get that type of label and often fall short, and you wonder why," Goff said, per the Rams' website. "I think that's something we can't really focus on ... take every day like we have the past year and build off of what we did in the spring."

As of now, Sportsline has the Rams at 10-1 odds to win the Super Bowl, tied for second behind only the Patriots. They share those odds with the defending Super Bowl-champion Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings.

"We've got all the pieces we need, we just need to put it together and continue to work hard every day and put all the pieces together," Goff added. "Like I said, every year there's teams with talent, we have talent, but what are we going to do to separate ourselves from the other teams? Continue to prepare and be the best we can be throughout this training camp and this season."

The Rams obviously don't want to be this year's Dream Team -- that's a nightmare scenario for any active offseason team -- but they're playing in a nightmare conference anyways. The Eagles, Vikings and Saints all present potentially huge hurdles in the NFC, but the Rams have triggered an NFC arms race. It was a risky tactic, but it's almost time to find out if it worked. It's not quite Super Bowl or bust, but the Rams have thrown their championship window open.