They may have the PFWA MVP as their quarterback, but the Los Angeles Rams will still walk into Lumen Field on Sunday night as the betting underdogs in the NFC Championship. The Seattle Seahawks are currently being listed as -2.5 point favorites for their third matchup against the Rams this season, and according to the star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, Travis Kelce, that’s for good reason.
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Having finished the 2025 regular season with the third-highest scoring offense and the stingiest defense from a points allowed perspective, it’s safe to say that no one wants to meet the Seahawks right now. Players like Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Sam Darnold, and Leonard Williams are just a few of the many effective names on this roster. But in the eyes of Kelce, it is their unsung hero of tight end, A.J. Barner, who should be getting a bit of credit right now.
“He’s one of my favorite guys. A young guy, a swag champ kind of guy,” Kelce gleamed during the latest installment of his New Heights podcast. “He just kind of brings everyone together… I just think that team, right now, is going to be so f**king difficult to beat.”
According to his fellow tight end and guest of the episode, Greg Olsen, football fans couldn’t have gotten a better match-up for this year’s conference championship. “I thought, going into the playoffs, the Rams and the Seahawks were the best two teams on either side,” he noted.
Although when you consider the fact that he was willing to label Seattle’s head coach, Mike Macdonald, as the “defensive equivalent of Sean McVay,” it doesn’t seem as if Olson is very confident in Matthew Stafford’s ability to overcome this defense for a second time this year.
“That Seattle defense, to me, is how every defense in the league would want to be created… They keep a lid on it. They play fast, they play in space, but then you still can’t run the ball… You can’t gain a yard. They are really physical up front,” he said.
Olsen went on to explain how the Seahawks capitalize on their defense. “They’ve got good run-and-chase players at the second level… I think Seattle is probably the most well-rounded team in the league. I felt that way kind of down the stretch. I feel even more so about that going into this weekend’s game.”
Suffice to say, the Rams will have their work cut out for them in this one, and if they aren’t careful, then they’ll be booking a one-way flight back to Los Angeles as their conversations shift from game plans to vacation plans. Seeing as this could be the final season of Stafford’s Hall of Fame-caliber career, however, you can still expect them to put up a fight equal to the one we saw on December 18th of last year.
